The following message was sent to Kaiser Permanente members from the Kaiser COVID-19 Vaccination Team:
We’re sorry that it’s been so difficult to receive a COVID vaccine. When the state made people older than 65 eligible, they did not give Kaiser Permanente more vaccines for our clinics. We hear and understand that many of you feel let down.
We don’t know when we’ll get enough vaccine to offer appointments to everyone who is eligible. As soon as we receive vaccine, we can schedule appointments for those doses. Given the limited supply, we will follow the recommended Department of Public Health guidance to start with those people who are 75 or older and who are at highest risk of complications from or exposure to COVID-19.
While our supplies do not allow us to offer you an appointment immediately, we will notify you by email or letter when we have enough vaccine to offer you an appointment. The email or letter notification will include information on how to schedule your vaccine appointment. You do not need to take additional action at this time.
We are proud to care for more than 272,000 patients who are 75 years of age and older. We are receiving an average of 20,000 doses per week and are diligently administering the vaccines as soon as we get them. Although we cannot give you a specific timeline, at the current rate of vaccine allocation it will take a couple of months to be able to provide vaccinations to all our members over 75. We continue to advocate for more vaccine from the state to speed this process.
Our calling is to protect you and the community we serve, and we very much look forward to vaccinating as many of you as is possible. Thank you for your understanding.
The Kaiser Permanente COVID-19 Vaccination Team
Maybe cuz it’s all going to Gitmo?
As I’ve posted before: Just show up at DVC (Diablo Valley College) any week day! They start giving shots at 2:30 pm (until 5pm ?). Get there a bit earlier to fill out paperwork. They give them to the oldest folks first, then down the line to younger folks. Anyone, any age, is ok. Parking lot at DVC has been quite busy for past few weeks. Why doesn’t the CCHelth Dept gotten this word out?? Its just as easy as that. They even give you a paper that tells you when to come back for the #2 shot.
Which parking lot at DVC? How long is the line that you have to stand in and wait for a shot? How far is it from the parking lot, walking distance? These are critical questions for someone 65 and older and the disabled.
When they called me for an appointment, they could not give me specifics about how long I would be standing, and walking a DVC parking lot. This arrangement is out of the question for many.
I second what Gittyup stated. The unknown elements hardly make randomly going out in January or any other time of year to the other side of town to possibly stand in line for an indeterminate length of time with many others in a large unfamiliar place, of uncertain value to some elderly and disabled people. Sounds like an option for fit and adventurous sorts with time to kill though.
I have not recieved this letter yet and I do know Kaiser has been giving shots to some older folks. Is this some of that infamous ‘fake news’ we hear about all the time?
@ Jose
I received an email yesterday at 12:24 a.m. from Kaiser’s CEO Greg A. Adams. I said basically the same thing. It also provided some links to kp.org for updated Covid info.
We have Kaiser but plan on getting them at local CVS…
We got the CEO’s email yesterday too.
I know of people over 75 that have gotten their shots.
I also do not know of anyone yet that has gotten a letter like this.
The message is a repeat of what is posted on the Kaiser website.
I received a notification, went to the website and found it there.
It’s real. I got it. It gave the number of people in the plan over 75 and how many vaccinations Kaiser get per week. Comes out to it will take three months to get them to all over 75.
I got this letter.
great! so once this is done the vulnerable will be protected, so can this plan-demic be over?
What’s your plan for re-opening and what safeguards do you have in mind? If the answer is “Nothing, we just go back to the way things were and only a small percentage die” then no.
Hey Chuq,
Since when did government ever care about our health?
I do not want to hear about seatbelts or helmet laws.
What about all of the supplements which the FDA has banned???
20,000/week. Is that to KP Northern CA, or the entire KP CA system? If they are administering all the doses given and none are sitting unused, can’t expect much more than that (from KP). Per the CA vaccine dashboard, 3.2 million doses have been administered (Tier 1A is about 3 million needed, 1B is 8.5 million, so about 27% of eligible have been dosed. Nice to see the incarcerated and homeless are a higher priority than a 45 year old with an underlying condition, or even a 64 year old. I also wonder if because 1B is food and agricultural, how many illegal aliens will be dosed?
Food is still essential no matter what crazy immigration practice is going on. And an outbreak still tends to spread to the elderly whether it starts in citizens or non-citizen.
I’m sure that many Kaiser members 75+ aren’t waiting for Kaiser to give them the vaccination. John Muir Health seems totally focused on their own medical staff. The County is vaccinating a large number of Contra Costa residents every day. Signing up to get notified of an appointment opportunity is pretty easy at: https://www.coronavirus.cchealth.org/.
Over 30,000 County residents age 75+ had already been vaccinated by the time of yesterday’s report. I’m pretty sure that everyone in the 75+ group who wants a shot will be able to get it by the end of February, if they make the effort to get an appointment.
John Muir is busy vaccinating 3000 patients over 75 years of age a week. Once there are enough vaccines they will do 6000 a week.
A BIG worry is getting the 1st shot too soon and being unable to get the 2nd in a timely manner. No matter the assurances given. I can foresee that if others complain they deserve those shots…
My wife and I are in that boat w/ Kaiser. We are booked for #2 in late Feb….if we don’t get it, it will be malpractice…slam dunk.
I’m hoping for this.
It appears the county hospital is giving COVID vaccines to anyone over 75 regardless of which health network they belong to… you just have to make an appointment with them. My sister was able to get my 86 year old mom vaccinated (Martinez) even thou she is a John Muir member.
Baloney. Kaiser was caught with their pants down and no planning or prioritization of their patients. Some 65+ patients with connections are able to get appointments with no problem, while others in their 90s are still patiently waiting. The LEAST kaiser can do is recommend that people sign up through the county to get vaccinated ASAP, but instead they tell them to wait. Boo on them.
Really? What connections? Who do I need to know or call? Your input would be greatly appreciated.
As I’ve posted many times before: I wouldn’t let Kaiser touch me! Way to many screw-ups and bad communications; as well as bad juju! Get smart and get a good Health Care Provider.
Most people who choose Kaiser do so because it’s the lowest priced HMO. We DO often suffer from slow service, especially for outpatients but most people infrequently use the system in their younger years. West coast Kaiser has consistently been the top rated HMO, and has 9.3 million members. A big ship is hard to steer.
Kaiser has been top rated for years and did a great job. It is only under the present administration, who puts their priority on performing sex change operations, that long time members are being let down. I would hate to see their rating on the next go around.
Dear Friends
I filled out the form about 10 days ago and just received a notice to schedule an appt. for next week.
Here is the request form for those 65 and older wanting to receive the Covid-19 vaccine:
https://forms.microsoft.com/Pages/ResponsePage.aspx?id=3tkgKC3cY0OGJvKwA0OMRRd1QfIVjtpAkM-cYiio35ZUM0hIWVpaOTJHSDBTM0ZLSU5SNUM3NEo0OCQlQCN0PWcu
Once submitted, you should be able to receive an mailto schedule an appt.at various locations and times. I am with Kaiser, so they will ask you to bring you card and ID. Thus far the appointments that I know of, are into the latter part of next week.
For those youngsters under the age of 65, perhaps you can pass this on to someone who may need it or want it.
Stay safe!
@Bonnie Shue – Thank you! – I used the link (despite worries of availability of the 2nd vaccine) to sign up with that link. Qualified in the over-65 category. To others: the link had about 20 questions & took a couple minutes. Easy peasy…
Kaiser can’t deliver vaccines the state doesn’t deliver. Per the latest state numbers (https://covid19.ca.gov/vaccines/#California-vaccines-dashboard) the state has delivered 4.8M vaccines… of that 1.3M (27%) went to “Health System Multi-County Entities”.
KP is one (of many) such entity. So are Sutter, Dignity, Providence, Adventist, and a few others. KP is only a slice of that segment.
Kaiser alone provides health services to 23% of all Californians. It sure looks like the HSMCEs are getting jobbed at the expense of local counties; who have gotten 71% of all doses distributed.
This is not Kaiser’s problem… the state is not fairly distributing vaccines.
The mandate is supposed to be 65 and older Not 75 and older. Why do they change the age limits?