The steady campaign to vaccinate Sonoma County’s ag workers
A campaign to vaccinate all essential workers from Sonoma County’s agriculture, vineyard and winery sectors is up to about 70% of its coverage goal.
Now in its fifth week of operation, the program has vaccinated and scheduled vaccination appointments for more than 8,300 essential workers. The goal is 12,500.
“This effort in Sonoma County should be the model for the nation in how to organize and vaccinate essential ag and production workers,” said Dr. Jason Cunningham, chief executive officer at West County Health Centers, one of the program partners. ”We have succeeded because of the tremendous collaboration throughout the community from people and organizations who share one focus to quickly and efficiently immunize our essential food and agricultural workers to reduce their risk of becoming ill.”
A new study out of the University of California, San Francisco found that Latinx Californians experienced a 36% increase in mortality during the pandemic as compared to historical periods, with a 59% increase among Latinx food/agriculture workers. The state’s current vaccination Phase 1B includes people 65 and older and essential workers in education, emergency services, food, and agriculture workers as eligible for shots.
The County program is a cooperative effort involving the Sonoma County Winegrowers, the Sonoma County Vintners, the Sonoma County Farm Bureau, local community health centers including the West County Health Center, the Sonoma Valley Health Center, the Alliance Medical Center, the Alexander Valley Health Care, and the Sonoma County Medical Association.
Each week, Community Health Centers throughout Sonoma County commit a certain number of vaccines to vaccinate essential ag and production workers against the Coronavirus pandemic.
Each of the ag partner organizations is contributing staff, providing translators, and donating additional resources to make the effort successful.ntial workers are vaccinated each day. In addition, agricultural organizations have conducted outreach and education to essential workers. All communication and education are offered in both Spanish and English so everyone can make informed decisions about getting vaccinated.
“We are succeeding in reaching our vaccination goal because of the outstanding coordination and trust that exist amongst all parties involved,” said Karissa Kruse, president of the Sonoma County Winegrowers. “There is a unique relationship the county trade associations have with each other, local businesses and farms and, in turn, the trust that exists between the ag employer and their employees.”
Kruse credits the broad coalition for the success of the program. “This model of bringing healthcare providers together with local businesses and farms should not be used just here for this pandemic, but as a model for supporting the health of our local communities moving forward.”
As witnessed throughout the United States, the logistical challenges to distributing the vaccines are enormous and complex. Adding to that in California are the continued revisions to the state’s rollout plan, confusing messaging to millions of workers regarding priority vaccination groups and an undersupply of doses statewide. The result has been a mixed effort to inoculate high-risk workers employed at farms, restaurants, and grocery stores.
“From the beginning, our focus has been on creating accessible clinics at the Sonoma County Fairgrounds to support the vaccination efforts of the current eligible tier of community members and mobilizing our volunteer network of local doctors and nurses,” said Wendy Young, executive director, Sonoma County Medical Association.
In addition to organizing the vaccine rollout for essential ag workers, the Sonoma County Vintners Foundation donated iPads and funding to each of the participating Community Health Centers to provide much-needed technology for coordinating the logistics of the vaccine program. The Sonoma County Grape Growers Foundation also donated funding to each of the healthcare community organizations involved to help cover day-to-day expenses related to the program. The collaboration will continue and is accessible for all ag and production workers who live in Sonoma County.
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Why are cancer patients and people compromised with serious health issues put behind other populations. Isn’t that why we did older people first because they were more vulnerable? I have a 30 year older son who has cancer but he is too young so he isn’t eligible for a vaccine. Can someone tell me why?