April 14, 2021

The following eNewsletter article can be localized, personalized, and tailored to your individual County and sent to your residents to enhance local vaccination efforts. Click here to return to the main Toolkit.

California Counties Are Partners In Vaccination Call to Action

From the very start of the pandemic, county leaders and public health officials have worked tirelessly to protect and ensure your health. We are your neighbors, your friends, and fellow community members. Not in recent memory has our county, our state, or even our country confronted such an all-encompassing health crisis and we’ve learned a lot of valuable lessons along the way.

Now that the COVID-19 vaccines are offering some light at the end of the tunnel, Counties are doing everything in their power to ensure doses are distributed and administered within our community quickly and equitably. However, as you may know, California’s counties are just one piece of the vaccine puzzle. We too have been upset and frustrated by delays and bottlenecks that have hampered vaccine distribution.

Through our statewide association, called the California State Association of Counties (CSAC), we are in daily discussions with Governor Newsom and his staff regarding vaccine administration. We are asking the Governor for county flexibility in administering vaccines, more funding for public health support and increased transparency and coordination between the state and counties, public health departments, hospitals, private health care companies and retail partners like CVS or Rite Aid that are also administering the vaccine.

XXX County – like the other 57 around the state – is ready and well-equipped to assist in the vaccine rollout. (Insert a message point here about County facts like the percentage of doses administered, or other on-the-ground statistics). Our counties are the community point guard for vaccination distribution. Success only comes from a full team of players, including the state, providers, and hospitals, being on the same page working in coordination with the needed resources. Each player must work as a team to ensure vaccines are administered swiftly, equitably, and with minimal waste.

We hear your concerns and have raised them with the Administration every step of the way during the pandemic. We share your frustration, we understand your fears and we share your hopes for a better tomorrow. Please know that we are working hard on your behalf to eliminate the virus. Many of our days are spent in meetings or on the phone trying to work out these difficult issues so we can make progress, together. We appreciate all of you who are doing your part by continuing to wear your masks, washing your hands, and maintaining social distance when you’re away from home. Your efforts have not gone unnoticed and have made a difference right here in our community. Thank you. Keep it up.

We all look forward to the moment when schools can reopen, when we can hug those loved ones we haven’t seen in a while, and we can take on the serious work of rebuilding our economy. But that won’t happen overnight, even with the vaccine. So as your neighbor, your friend, and local elected official, I ask you to please stay the course, to know that we’re working tirelessly in your interest, and join me in looking ahead to a brighter future.

Best,

XXXX, County Supervisor

Click here to return to the main Toolkit.