COVID Cases Up in Santa Barbara County as Questions Swirl over Vaccine Access

COVID cases were peaking in late August in Santa Barbara, Goleta, and Lompoc, judging by the sewer results collected by the state, which is just about when fall and the new school year were settling in. The increase had been pronounced in the wastewater flowing in Goleta and Lompoc but has since subsided, while Santa Barbara’s was plateauing but high. Positive cases were up at the moment, the county Public Health Department reported, though hospitalizations remain low.

For those of us trying to keep up on the latest, there’s no longer a federal COVID vaccine mandate, and Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recently announced it has restricted eligibility for boosters and vaccination to “anyone aged 65 and older, as well as people 6 months and up with high-risk medical conditions (such as asthma, diabetes, or cancer),” said Dr. Lynn Fitzgibbons, an infectious disease expert and educator with Cottage Health. “Pregnant women and children may also qualify depending on their provider’s judgment,” she said after the latest recommendation from FDA.

Pharmacy clinics around town and some doctors’ offices offer the vaccine. “For those not eligible, pharmacies may require a prescription or to self-attest to a qualifying condition before vaccination,” Dr. Fitzgibbons advised. Patients may need to check with their insurance carrier for vaccination coverage, but she estimated the price of a booster ranged between $90 and $200, depending on the provider.

For those covered by Medi-Cal Rx, the COVID-19 vaccine continues to be covered with no restrictions, said a spokesperson with CenCal, the county’s Medicaid provider. “All CenCal Health members should be able to get the vaccine through their pharmacy,” they said.

Controversial though they may be in some circles, vaccines for COVID have made a big difference. In the pre-vaccine pandemic days, hospital wards and hallways became crowded with patients, and the call went out for more respirators. In large cities, hospitals parked refrigerated trailers outside their doors to hold the overwhelming number of people who died of COVID-related pneumonia.

Sewer results collected by the state show COVID cases were peaking in late August in Santa Barbara, Goleta, and Lompoc. | Credit: Courtesy

Yet, vaccines don’t completely eliminate the disease, but they do make COVID much less life-threatening. The vaccines are available both in the mRNA types, such as Pfizer and Moderna, as well as Novavax, which is a traditional vaccine.

Eligibility standards may change during a meeting later this week of the federal vaccine advisory panel, itself something of a controversy after Health and Human Services Secretary Robert Kennedy Jr. dismissed the sitting panel members; among their replacements were vaccine skeptics.

“That shift has raised concerns among public health experts about whether the committee’s recommendations will continue to be evidence-based and broadly protective,” Dr. Fitzgibbons noted. “Overall, I’m very worried about the trend we are seeing with vaccine recommendations at the federal level, and feel strongly that we need to keep ourselves and our communities safe against vaccine-preventable diseases.”

In early September, California, Washington, and Oregon banded together to coordinate public health strategies “based on the best available science,” and Hawai’i soon joined them. They endorsed the guidance from the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, and the American Academy of Family Physicians for COVID, influenza, and RSV vaccines. This led to a recommendation from the California Department of Public Health (CDPH) that was in keeping with previous guidance from the Centers for Disease Control, namely that COVID vaccination was recommended for everyone age six months and older, the Santa Barbara County Public Health Department said.

The vaccine webpage organized by the CDPH lists additional resources and information, including that a doctor’s prescription might be needed to obtain the COVID vaccine. When it came to insurance coverage, a spokesperson for the agency said, “Much work remains to be done, and CDPH will provide more information as soon as possible.”

On Wednesday, California and the four-state health alliance sent their immunization recommendations, shown in the chart below:

Editor’s Note: This story was updated on September 19 to include CenCal vaccine coverage information.