A state plan to send more COVID-19 vaccines to at-risk communities could actually harm poor people in Santa Clara County. Earlier this month, the state began setting aside 40 percent of all vaccines for low-income ZIP codes. The 400-plus ZIP codes are chosen by evaluating their respective “healthy places index,” a function of more than...
San Jose to establish COVID-19 ‘Resiliency Corps,’ hire up to 500 youth
San Jose’s mayor hopes to create a jobs program to help bounce back from the economic devastation wrought by the COVID-19 pandemic. The “Resilience Corps” would hire up to 500 residents, mostly young adults, to focus on five specific areas of need, Mayor Sam Liccardo said, including pandemic response, environmental issues, education support, disaster preparedness...
One-shot Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine arrives in Santa Clara County
After weeks of waiting, the Johnson & Johnson vaccine just arrived in Santa Clara County. Today, the county received 7,500 doses of the new COVID-19 vaccine, according to public health officials. Additional doses of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine are expected to arrive in Santa Clara County on March 23. The highly-anticipated Johnson & Johnson’s...
Developmentally disabled kids in San Jose left behind amid COVID-19
Access to a COVID-19 vaccine may be the first step to getting students back on campus, but youth are in the back of the line for vaccines in California. That’s especially tough for students with special needs and developmental disabilities for whom distance learning is not conducive. For these students, online education halts months of...
South Bay education leaders: Teachers need vaccines faster
Santa Clara County education leaders are advocating for teachers to get vaccinated before they step foot inside a classroom — but not all teachers should get first dibs. A group of county educators Thursday said that vaccine priority should be given to teachers who are already working with students in person, followed by employees of...
San Jose mayor celebrates school reopenings as critics fight back
Mayor Sam Liccardo claimed a political victory when the San Jose Unified School District announced recently it would reopen for indoor instruction April 21. But advocates say the mayor and his new advocacy group had nothing to do with the decision. In a mass email from Liccardo’s recently-formed organization Solutions San Jose, he praised the district’s decision...
After publishing wrong COVID-19 vaccine numbers, Santa Clara County blames technical error
Santa Clara County published inaccurate demographic data on its COVID-19 vaccination dashboard and only updated the errors after San José Spotlight brought it to officials’ attention. “There’s a discrepancy in the data,” Santa Clara County spokesperson Roger Ross confirmed Thursday. “We have been looking into it.” The majority of the data on the county’s vaccination...
Santa Clara County vaccine sites popping up: Find the closest to you
There are now 20 vaccination clinics across Santa Clara County, with several new sites opening within just the past week. San José Spotlight has created an interactive map to show where eligible residents can get their vaccines. Santa Clara County is continuing to open new sites in communities hardest hit by COVID-19, including Gilroy and East San Jose. Each...
Santa Clara County has an optimistic outlook post-COVID-19, board leader says
Despite the past year’s 1,700-plus COVID-19 deaths, gaping budget shortfalls and widespread job loss, Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors President Mike Wasserman sees light at the end of the tunnel. In his first State of the County address earlier this month, Wasserman called for unity and preparedness for a post-pandemic world and made an...
Good Samaritan Hospital CEO resigns following COVID-19 vaccine scandal
Weeks after a scandal involving inappropriate COVID-19 vaccine distribution, Good Samaritan Hospital’s top administrator is stepping down and leaving the hospital’s parent company, San José Spotlight has learned. The hospital’s CEO, Joe DeSchryver, submitted his resignation Tuesday morning, telling staff in an email that he would no longer be with the hospital’s parent company, HCA...