By Mary O’KEEFE

State Senator Anthony Portantino and Los Angeles County Supervisor Kathryn Barger sponsored a COVID-19 town hall meeting last week that covered specific pandemic topics including vaccines, pediatric health and tenant/landlord relief.

Portantino and Barger focused the first part of the meeting on the medical side of COVID-19, which included speakers Pia S. Pannaraj, M.D., MPH, who is an associate professor of clinical pediatrics at Keck School of Medicine of USC and an infectious disease specialist at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles, and Patricia Marquez Sung, MPH, CIC who is the manager of Infection Prevention and Control, USC Verdugo Hills Hospital.

During the town hall, Portantino and Barger admitted the vaccine roll out in January did not work as well as they had hoped, but said the number of people now being vaccinated is growing as more locations open up and more vaccines are available.

“California is ranked sixth in the world on COVID vaccinations administrated, which is good news,” Portantino said.

He added health care workers had told him that by mid-April the demand for vaccines might be less than the supply available.

Barger said her office has received a lot of calls surrounding vaccination efforts.

“As the chair of the board of supervisors I was tasked with directing how the County would manage the pandemic,” she said. Barger served as chair of the board of supervisors from December 2019 until December 2020.

She said the County is looking at how to bring the economy back and to safely reopen various sectors.

“I emphasize ‘safely’ because if we don’t do it right we are going to be shut down again,” Barger warned.

She added she wants children to return to in-person learning and said she has been contacted by “countless” numbers of parents and some students who spoke to her about their emotional and social issues due to ongoing virtual learning.

She highlighted that vaccinating LA County residents is an important part of returning to a more normal way of life. According to Barger, as of March 24, 3.2 million vaccine doses had been administered in LA County. The Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines have been the most available in LA County; however, there is an expected increase in the availability of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine. The Johnson & Johnson vaccine is a single dose vaccine.

“I believe Johnson & Johnson will be a game changer,” Barger said.

She has received inquiries about the long lines at the Dodger Stadium vaccination clinic. She said that problem is being addressed by reorganizing the number of people who are registered, which she thinks will help curtail the long lines.

Sung spoke on the three vaccines approved for the U.S., Pfizer, Moderna and Johnson & Johnson, and that work is being done on creating a vaccine for children.

She stated there is not a vaccine for children under 16 years of age yet. Moderna is conducting trials for children from ages 12 to 17 and just started researching a vaccine for children six months to 11 years old. Pfizer is conducting trials for children 12 to 15 years old. Johnson & Johnson has reported it expects to have a vaccine available by September for children younger than 18 years old.

“Pfizer has started trials for 12-year-old [to 15-year-old children],” Pannaraj said.

As of Wednesday, Pfizer announced its vaccine demonstrated 100% efficacy and robust antibody responses “exceeding those recorded earlier in vaccinated participants aged 16 to 25 years of age.”

The research for a children’s vaccine is complicated. It is not simply recalculating the dosage from an adult level to that for a child.

“Children are not just little adults,” Pannaraj said. “We can’t say, ‘We know the vaccine works in adults so now let’s give it to children.’”

Companies have to gather a lot of data to move forward with a children’s vaccine, she added.

She also believes it is important that children return to in-person school, adding there have been several cities and countries that either did not shut down school at all or have already returned to in-person learning.

There is no data that shows an increase in the transmission of COVID-19 in schools, she said.

The subject of COVID variants was also discussed. Sung said that sometimes new variants emerge from the first virus, and that sometimes that variant can disappear over time while others remain.

“So far studies have suggested the current vaccines protect against the [known] variants,” Sung said.

She added it was important for people not to “vaccine shop.”

“It is recommended you take the vaccine that is offered to you when it is your time,” she advised.

Although millions are being vaccinated the Country is still “far below” the number needed to attain herd immunity.

Herd immunity, or community immunity, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is “a situation in which a sufficient proportion of a population is immune to an infectious disease (through vaccination and/or prior illness) to make its spread from person to person unlikely. Even individuals not vaccinated (such as newborns and those with chronic illnesses) are offered some protection because the disease has little opportunity to spread within the community.”

Sung said the same precautions should be taken by people even if they are fully vaccinated. New guidelines released by the CDC state that those who are fully vaccinated can gather indoors without masks with others who have been vaccinated. But those who have been vaccinated are advised to continue following all social distancing regulations.

Vaccines are the best defense we have against infectious diseases, and these new findings are promising. However, no vaccine is 100% effective for everyone. Therefore, it’s possible that some people who are fully vaccinated could get COVID-19, and the evidence is not yet clear if they could spread the virus to others. CDC is continuing to evaluate the science,” responded the CDC to a question by CVW.

During the virtual town hall meeting, a question was asked if there was a difference between the two shot process, Pfizer and Moderna, and the single dose Johnson & Johnson. The Pfizer and Moderna shots are designed so the first shot is the “loading dose” that “primes” the immune system and the second dose, which is given 21 to 28 days after the first dose, is a booster shot. The Johnson & Johnson generates the same response with only one shot.

“Across the board, all three are protective against the [virus],” Sung added.

Another question concerned parents who are vaccinated but their child is not; does that pose a risk to the child?

According to Pannaraj, parents can socialize with others following the CDC guidelines but when they are out in public they are still at risk of carrying the COVID-19 virus and possibly giving it to someone else – like their child. She, like Sung, advised everyone, whether they are vaccinated or not, to continue to follow the CDC and LA County guidelines.

Next week CVW will cover the discussion on relief for renters and landlords.