California Gov. Gavin Newsom COVID-19 Press Conference Transcript December 14

Speaker 1: (00:00)
… Mayor Garcetti, Secretary Ghaly, and, of course, welcome to all of you. Today is a historic day in the fight against COVID-19. After 10 months of a defensive battle against this deadly virus, today we’re taking the first step to protect people proactively. We at Kaiser Permanente to have been a part of the vaccine studies and to now be at the forefront of the national vaccine distribution effort.

Speaker 1 : (00:31)
This is a race against time because as we stand here, the virus is once again spreading rapidly across California and across our nation. At midnight last night across Kaiser Permanente hospitals in the state, there were 2,174 COVID patients, and the numbers are growing daily. I want to thank the many nurses, doctors, other healthcare workers at Kaiser Permanente who are on the front line every day caring for these very sick patients. I’m glad today that we are beginning to vaccinate these brave healthcare workers who are most impacted by the surge that’s occurring in our communities. We know that while we’re vaccinating today that we do not have enough vaccine available, or isn’t available quickly enough to protect everyone from the surge that’s underway. So I urge you, we urge you, we urge everyone to continue to take the critical precautions to stop the spread of the virus over the next several months. Stay socially distanced from others, wear a mask, wash your hands, avoid gathering.

Speaker 1: (01:56)
I also want to take a moment just to thank our Governor for his partnership with California healthcare providers for all that he has done to help lead the fight against the virus and also for helping to make today possible. So with that, I’d like to call to the podium Supervisor Solis.

Hilda Solis: (02:26)
Good afternoon, everyone, and [foreign language 00:02:29]. I want to thank Governor Gavin Newsom for this extraordinary time that we’re in, but for his leadership throughout all these difficult times that we’ve gone through. I also want to thank Mr. Greg Adams and also the entire staff, the Kaiser family, as well as our very good friend Mayor Garcetti. Most importantly, I want to acknowledge Kim Taylor and the other Kaiser healthcare workers who got the vaccine just a moment ago. They’re our real heroes. They’re the ones that deserve this.

The past months have been, as you know, very challenging for all of us, but hope is here, relief is here, and the vaccine is here. Last week, we saw pictures of British citizens getting COVID-19 vaccines; and now right here in our very own mix in Los Angeles County, our healthcare workers are receiving the vaccine. This indeed is a momentous occasion for our country in the fight against COVID-19.

I want to echo my thanks to the incredible scientists and researchers, some of whom are proud immigrants, who worked at historic speed to develop this safe and effective vaccine. Thanks to them, we can now see an end point to this pandemic. That fills me with great hope and in Spanish [foreign language 00:03:44].

This is a moment of healing, even though the exact timeline for widespread access remains unclear, today some of our healthcare workers will receive their first shot of the vaccine. They have been and continue to be some of the most courageous people that we know, especially during the pandemic, and their protection has to be prioritized.

Los Angeles County will receive the full shipment of 82,875 doses of the Pfizer vaccine by this week, which will go toward frontline healthcare workers at acute care hospitals. By December 21st, we expect the second vaccine shipment to arrive. These will go to staff and residents at skilled nursing facilities and long-term care facilities. Before the end of the year, we’re hoping to get the third shipment for the first wave. 250,000 to 300,000 healthcare workers, providers, and emergency medical workers will hopefully get vaccinated.

We have been working very hard, our public health professionals, to make sure the vaccine can be administered as quickly as possible. In the new year, we will start vaccinating more broadly with the continued focus on equity, using that equity lens. Los Angeles County will ensure that vaccines are eventually available in every neighborhood and to all people in Los Angeles, regardless of race, insurance status, or ability to pay. I’m committed to making sure that everyone who wants a vaccine will have access to one. Equity and transparency are our through lines.

The goal for everyone right now is to continue keeping ourselves and our loved ones safe until widespread access becomes available. Once again, we must hunker down, but the difference now is that we can see an end point. The pandemic will not last forever. The off ramp is in plain view. If we make sacrifices now, we will soon be able to see our loved ones in person, attend schools and churches, visit restaurants and eateries, and reenter our new society. We must fight to get through the darkness, but there’s a very bright light at the end of the tunnel, and we’re heading toward that today. As the Governor says, and we’ll say, let’s continue to meet the moment. California has done so in many, many instances.

Thank you. With that, I’d like to introduce the Mayor of Los Angeles, Eric Garcetti.

Mayor Garcetti: (06:19)
Thank you, and very good morning to everybody. [foreign language 00:06:22] Let me start by thanking our new chair of the Board of Supervisors, but an old friend, an incredible American leader. Hilda Solis has been a trailblazer. She has been an extraordinary voice for following public health during this, and I just want to thank her from the bottom of my heart on behalf of one of your 10 million constituents here in the county.

Second, let me think America’s Governor, a man who has shown courage, a man who has been steady and resolute in saying that facts and science matter, but who’s also showed what we need more of in this country, the ability to tune out the noise and to save lives, to do what’s right, always. I’m very proud that he is my Governor as well. Gavin Newsom, thank you for all you have done as well.

Thank you too to Greg Adams and the entire Kaiser family. This is my hospital. This is my Kaiser. So I’m home when I’m here, and I love you all. I brought my daughter here one of those evenings to thank you all, to celebrate the leadership you have brought. It’s been so meaningful to know.

We have a nurse in our family, our eldest. I know the hours you’re working. I know the stress that you’ve seen. I know the pain that you’ve held and the loss that you’ve witnessed. I hope that you’re all taking care of yourselves, your mental and your spiritual wellbeing, in what is the toughest year of our lives.

We are marching through the horror of this moment. There’s no way around that. 10 times the cases we had just six weeks ago in this county. But today, we’re also marching through the hope of this moment. We hold that horror and that hope together, the horror reminding us that while we celebrate today, don’t let up. Don’t stop doing what’s right, and keeping that distance and wearing your mask. I’ve got this nice Kaiser mask today. Making sure you wash your hands and stay away from each other. It is not the time to let up.

Second, it is the hope of this moment. To have witnessed the vaccines that we just saw brought a tear to my eye because it shows human ingenuity, it shows the stubbornness that human beings have. We want to survive, we want to thrive, and we will make it through this. That hope that we have today will only be hope if we can minimize the deaths and the hospitalizations before us in these next couple months, if we can bend this curve down, beat it down to the ground, as you have done so-

Bend this curve down, beat it down to the ground as you have done so marvelously in this county. And so while we see and we thank the researchers, and the doctors, the folks who took part in the clinical trials, and the folks like Kim Taylor who I’ll introduce in a moment, who have been the ones who bravely stepped forward to serve and now bravely stepped forward. I just also want to dispel for any communities, because at the federal level and with a double-check at the state, these vaccines have not been infected by politics. You can trust them. You should trust them. I trust them. And when my ticket is the right one, I will be ready probably here at Kaiser with my family to make sure that I do my part, to not only save lives, but to return our economy and our well-being and our prosperity and some normalcy to our lives.

It’s not for me. Let me turn it over to a real hero who is every single day answering the call, and who represents so many men and women, whether it’s somebody who’s just turning around in a windowless room, these tests every single day, whether it’s somebody who’s coming in and cleaning the hospitals at great risk, but it’s a nurse, a tech, a doctor. We love you. We see you. And Kim Taylor stepped forward today as one of the first Americans to receive a vaccine right here at Kaiser Sunset. We thank her. And on behalf of her, let’s give a round of applause to all medical professionals who are fighting this battle. Kim Taylor.

Hey everybody, I’m Kim Taylor. I’m an emergency room nurse here at Kaiser Permanente, Los Angeles. I’m excited to be with you guys today. I’m even more excited to be a part of California’s history as one of the first recipients of the COVID-19 vaccine made by Pfizer in the state. We frontline workers have been working around the clock over the past nine months, sacrificing so much of what we do and love to take care of our patients. We’ve been doing this while trying to take of our own families and keep them safe.

What I want you guys to know is that help is on the way. Today’s just the first step. Soon more vaccines will be distributed to the frontline workers and our most vulnerable populations. I also want people to know that the vaccine is safe and when it’s made widely available, I encourage everyone to take it so that we can get rid of this pandemic and get back to normal life. Perhaps the best way that you can support us nurses right now is to continue wearing a mask, maintain physical distance, stay home for the holidays, and wash your hands. We can’t win this fight alone. We need your help to keep our numbers down and to slow the spread of COVID-19. And with that, I’ll turn it over to Governor Newsom.

Gavin Newsom : (12:47)
Save this time not just saving lives every day. Thank you, Kim, and all of you for the privilege of this opportunity to be here today. Greg, thank you for bringing all of us together and making the vaccine available to those desperate need here in Southern California. Today, four different locations in the state received vaccines. This was one of the critical sites. Over 17,000 vaccines are down in that ultra cold refrigerator just downstairs here in the basement. In Southern California, down in San Diego, we had vaccines delivered, and of course up in Northern California at San Francisco General Hospital and St. Joseph Hospital all the way up and Eureka. That’s four sites today. Tomorrow, 24 additional sites will receive the vaccine, an additional five sites on Wednesday. You’ll get a sense of the cadence as these vaccine numbers grow as more and more vaccines are delivered.

33,150 doses were received today here in the state of California. Part of the commitment from Pfizer to provide the state of California 327,600 doses. We are hopeful and enthusiastic about the prospect of Moderna following up after Pfizer with an additional 672,600 doses potentially within a week or so. We are working for planning purposes so people get a sense of what the state is working. Again, from a planning perspective, I look at anywhere from 2.1 to 2.16 million doses by the end of the calendar year. Now I want to put that in perspective. We have roughly two and a half million, 2.4 million healthcare workers. Today, we had five of our healthcare workers at least get the first shot of the immunization, the first dose. In 21 days, they’ll be getting a subsequent dose.

We’ll put this moment in perspective. It is a day where we can lay claim to the fresh air of progress versus that stale air of normalcy. But nonetheless, as was stated, we have to be sober and mindful about the moment we are in which is challenging and trying. Today, we received as many doses in the entire state of California as there were new cases in the state of California. Over 33,000 new cases recorded today averaging 31,000 new cases in this state in the last seven days. 159 people on average have lost their lives every single day in this state in the last week. We’ve seen a positivity rate in this state go from 3.5% six weeks ago to over 10.6% today, close to tripling just in six weeks. It is foundational at this moment of optimism and hope that we’re also mindful of this moment in the context of our individual effort to do what we can to advance the non-pharmaceutical interventions that have been so impactful in this fight against the pandemic.

It is so important that we continue to be vigilant, that we socially distance, physically distance, that we maintain our vigilance as it relates to wearing face coverings, wearing masks, and do everything in our power to mitigate not just the spread and the transmission of this virus, but to mitigate the impact in emergency departments, in ICUs all across this state. You may have seen over this weekend, one part of our state, San Joaquin County ran out of ICU beds. They are officially in surge capacity. We are very close within the next week or so anticipating that to be replicated in other parts of the state. We are in the midst of the worst moment of this pandemic. So today it’s hopeful and it’s reason to be optimistic, but let’s be mindful of where we really are in terms of this pandemic.

And forgive me for saying that, but I am very, very cautious about the moment we’re in, very, very mindful about the pressure Kim and her colleagues are under not just today, but what they’ll be under in a week or two. And so this is an extraordinary day because we now are protecting those that have been protecting us. We are providing support finally for people like Kim. And Kim made the point, not only for herself, but allowing her to go home and not worry about her family like she was worried about before, not worrying about the stress and pressures she’s placing on her loved ones each and every day. And so this is a big day in that respect and it’s a day to celebrate. But again, it’s a day to be mindful about the challenge we face. I want to just briefly say quick couple of things. On-

I want to just briefly say a quick couple of things on the issue of safety and efficacy. California was one of the first states to create a safety advisory committee. We had 11 members, world-class members. They reviewed phase one, phase, two trials. They reviewed all the information concurrently with what was going on FDA and elsewhere. And they signed off on the safety and veracity of this vaccine unanimously. Three members of our statewide scientific advisory group are also advising the CDC and the FDA and part of the national groups. We were joined by the governors of Nevada, Washington State and Oregon in that safety review. They had independently reviewed the veracity of all the claims and unanimously have signed off on the efficacy and safety of this vaccine.

We followed that up with a guidelines task force that’s looking at equity. Supervisor Solise talks in terms of equity. We don’t want to just talk about terms equity, nor does she. We want to deliver on that substantively. And that guidelines working group is working on the prioritization, not just the populations, but subpopulations, to make sure we do justice to those values and those principles. We have a community advisory committee, 70 members to make sure that those guidelines are real and that we deliver.

And I encourage folks that are curious about the next iteration of vaccines, meaning the next available group of individuals, to learn about that by going to the covid-19. ca.gov website, covid-19.ca.gov website. This community advisory process is transparent, and it’s public. Those guidelines are available on the website, and you will determine exactly where you are in the queue. And I encourage folks to actively engage and utilize that website as a point of contact, as we move forward through this next phase and through these next very, very challenging months.

I want to thank Dr. Ghaly, who’s here. Very familiar, to all of you down here, in LA County. Comes with his own support network, but Dr. Ghaly has just been an extraordinary champion on the front lines, trying to work collaboratively with not only the counties and our cities, but within our healthcare delivery system. He is also the one helping operationalize the four alternative care sites that we have now just put up in the last week in this state. We have an additional nine sites that are either in warm status or we’re prepared to put up, in order to get through the peak of these challenges. Dr. Ghaly’s responsible for getting over 3000 temporary staff members through contract services or Health Corps, that he’s working to get more staff to help support our efforts through this challenging and difficult time. He’s just done a magnificent job.

I want to say Mayor Garcetti. You know, one of the great things, people talk in terms of partnerships, there’s been no daylight. His demonstrable talents have been a display here in Los Angeles in partnership with the County and Hilda Solise. There’s no sparring, there’s no disagreements. There’s just folks working hard every single day, working and rowing in the same direction. And so, I would be remiss if I didn’t acknowledge that, because I can assure you, that’s not the case in every single state. Not every mayor, not every County board super, they’re not all aligned with their state officials, I assure you. And so, I just want to thank and acknowledge Mayor Garcetti for all his hard work and his counsel and advice, not just his work, but his leadership that is not always the demonstrable, because it’s those quiet moments where he’s making calls and encouraging us in areas where we’re not seeing things like he’s seen them at the local level. County and the city, remarkable partners.

Look, I’m down here in the spirit that is this moment, enthusiastic that there is light at the end of the tunnel, but mindful that we’re still in the tunnel and that we need to do everything we’ve done to date, which is we have outperformed a lot of expectations, because many of you individually have done the hard work of putting on those masks, the stubborn day-to-day work of keeping your distance from others. Let’s not run the 90-yard dash. Next month, month and a half will be challenging. If we get through that, there is light at the end of the tunnel, as I said, but there will be resiliency and renewal, and it will be markable growth for this state, and we know, our nation.

So thank you all again for being here and thank you, Kim, for being one of those first five to take this vaccine and to the other frontline healthcare workers, we thank you as well, for putting yourselves up, taking this vaccine and doing so proudly and responsibly at this critical juncture in this pandemic. And with that, we’re of course, here to answer any questions. But first, I just want to highlight this new Vaccinate All campaign we just launched today. You’ll be seeing a lot on this. $32 million, we’ll be funding a program focusing on equity, focusing on trusted messengers, focusing on communities that have been underserved, focusing on communities that have been under under-resourced.

This Vaccinate All campaign is about vaccinating all California. It’s not just some California, it’s not just connected California, but making sure we really do justice and reach out to communities that need to hear from trusted messengers, need to hear from community members that speak languages that people can respond to, not just language that we’re using here and in Sacramento.

So I hope folks will take a look at that site and I encourage folks to learn more about that program by going to the covid-19.ca.gov website as well. Happy to now take any questions. Of course, anyone behind us as well.

Hi Governor Newsome. My name is Colleen Shalby I’m with the Los Angeles Times, and I’ll be asking questions on behalf of the Press Corps. The first comes from Christine Mai-Duc of The Wall street Journal. She asks, how you will prioritize low-income and marginalized communities for the vaccine. If you can elaborate a bit more on how it will be done. And if cases and test results are not including race and ethnic data, how people will fall in line.

I encourage you to go to the covid-19.ca.gov website. You’ll see the details. You’ll see the plan that we’ve put up. What we have on that site is Plan 1A, which is the distribution of the first 327,000 doses of vaccine. We’re working on Plan 1B. Plan 1A has three tiers, subpopulations that in detail, answer the question being posed. The guidelines working group is working on Plan 1B, with a focus on equity, with a focus on the challenging issues around distribution, particularly for the ultra low cold storage issues related to Pfizer and the distinctions in the Moderna vaccine and its distribution.

Those groups have been meeting since October 19th, when we conceived of a scientific safety review committee and put these subsequent committees together. So a very comprehensive process, very independent protocols, very transparent, as well. Information on that first phase on the website and the subsequent phase will be made available right after our community advisory committee signs off.

Next question from Claudia Peschiutta of KNX Radio. Will the state plan to amend its coronavirus reopening system as vaccines become more widely available?

Yeah, we are iterative, we’re not ideological. But for the moment, the baseline concerns remain that we’re seeing substantial increase in community spread. We’re seeing significant increases in total number of positive cases. And more importantly, perhaps, the positivity rate spiking all across the State of California in every part of this state. For the time being, the new protocols we just put out, the regional stay at home advisories we put out, new protocols on enforcement, Cal/OSHA and others, will be effective. And as we move forward over the course of the next few weeks and months, we’ll adapt based upon how this virus is adapting, based upon the data and the facts on the ground.

Jennifer Watts from ABC Network News asks, where do teachers fall in line for receiving the vaccine? We’ve seen other states say teachers will be a priority. What is California’s plans to get teachers vaccinated?

Teachers are a priority. Teachers are being discussed in our Plan 1B. I encourage folks that want to learn more, their next public meeting is in a few days. We’ll be-

… more, their next public meeting is in a few days. We’ll be discussing our food supply system, that goes to farm workers, that goes to the frontline workers out there at the grocery stores, it goes to the critical and essential nature of our public educators across the spectrum, paraprofessionals, not just teachers themselves, and other essential workers. So that’s part of plan One-B and that’s our guidelines working group, working on that with our community advisors. That information should be made public formally, meaning we’ll sign off on the recommendations of those two bodies in the next few weeks, but those deliberations are public and transparent. And I encourage people to learn more by going to that website.

Alex Michelson from Fox 11 News asks, “What is your bottom line message to those who are skeptical about the long-term side effects of taking a vaccine which was produced so quickly?

Well, we had 11 world-class experts, some of the finest scientists and doctors, three of which are working as advisors to the FDA and CDC. One that was actually picked by the Biden administration, vice-president or now President-elect Biden to join his COVID advisory committee. The best of the best, independently reviewed, put their reputations on the line. The veracity of all the claims coming from the federal government and independently certified unanimously of the efficacy and safety of this drug. They were joined by six additional leaders from three other states that did the same. We have all the confidence in the efficacy and safety of these vaccines.

While there are side effects to any vaccine, you can talk to Kim perhaps about that in more detail, having just taken the first dose of the vaccine a few minutes ago, we are very, very confident, not only in its efficacy, but its safety.

Next question comes from Terry Sforza of Orange County Register, “Will you, Governor Newsom, be getting the vaccine? And if so, when?”

I will whenever it’s available to someone in my position, meaning I’m not cutting the line, not getting the line. I have no problem taking the vaccine. I look forward to taking this vaccine, I have confidence in its safety, in its efficacy, but I’m not going to get in the way of any of the critical workers I see in front of me and the folks behind me that are more deserving. Until that is the case, that all of those that are in need get it, the most vulnerable, then I will not get in the way of that.

Kristine Lazar from CBS-Two asks, “Who is paying for this, from transportation to security, to cooping the vaccine in storage? Is the federal government paying for any? And do we know what the cost will be for the state of California?”

All of us as taxpayers, federal taxpayers, are paying for this. There’s no cost of the actual vaccine. What may occur is there’ll be administrative costs and those costs will be borne to the extent that they are extended to clinics or other settings, pharmacies or hospital settings. The State of California will absorb those costs. So there’s no cost to getting the vaccine for people on Medi-Cal, there’ll be no costs for people getting the vaccine that are otherwise insured. There should be no costs associated, but there may be costs borne by those in the entire health care delivery system, but not the person that is actually receiving the vaccine.

Speaker 1: (30:29)
Governor? I hear there’s federal money on the table for the [crosstalk 00:03: 33].

Yeah, no. It’s just great, too. And then of course, the federal government, in terms of the back end logistics, the IT issues, the marketing issues, the broader issues of distribution, federal government is going to be critical in terms of providing support for the states and counties and local health officers all up and down, not only this state, but across the country to absorb those costs associated, those indirect costs associated with the administration of the vaccine.

Pete Wilgoren of Fox 11 KTTV asks, “Many people understandably are frustrated by the closures here in California. Can you speak about the Recall Newsom movement that is making some headlines based on this?”

The opportunity to end the closures presents itself anew today. As soon as we extinguish this virus, as soon as this virus is eliminated, as soon as this pandemic is behind us, the state will recover more resilient, more vibrant than ever. So the most important thing we can do from an economic perspective is focus on public health, focus on mitigating the spread of this virus, eliminating this virus. And the most important thing, non-pharmaceutical intervention we can do, is wearing face covering. The most important pharmaceutical intervention is getting a vaccine when it’s available, when your number proverbially is up. And so we’re encouraging everyone to do that when it becomes available.

Kathleen Ronayne of the Associated Press asks, “If you have any evidence at this point that the latest shutdowns in California are having the intended effect. Are you seeing people change their behavior in measurable ways?”

Yeah, we’re seeing that on movement data. We’re privy to move in data, which is open source data that you get that is made public because of our utilization of our cell phones, smart phones and the like. We are seeing a reduction from the grade of growth as it relates to that movement. So we are seeing impacts in that respect, meaning the likelihood of minimizing mixing is taking shape, obviously, by reducing the number of opportunities for contacts in some of these settings. We obviously by definition seen a reduction in that kind of mix.

So there is evidence in that respect and that is buying us time and helping us, allowing us to decompress our hospital system for non-essential or emergency services and allowing us the ability to get the staffing, build out the facilities and prepare for the next 30 to 60 days.

Nathan Solis of Courthouse News Service asks, “The state leased St. Vincent Medical Center back in March to help the influx of COVID-19 patients. The campus is currently being used for a film shoot. Why a film should still be allowed to operate in locations like this will hospitals prepare to surge plans?

I don’t know the details of that particular location as it relates to the current use. We used St. Vincent during the first phase of this pandemic as an alternative care site. It was identified as an alternative care site. Fortunately, we didn’t need to move beyond its warm status in the beginning of this pandemic. We have currently identified 11 sites that are in warm status up and down the state of California. That site is not one of those 11 for the purposes of our current planning, but we maintain vigilance as it relates to looking at alternative sites. In addition to St. Vincent, we are looking at other sites here in Southern California.

Our last question is not about the vaccine, but is about your new ethics policy. It comes from Sophia Bollag from the Sacramento Bee. She asks, “Will your news ethics policy apply to Jason Kenney? Will you continue to seek his political advice even though he’s registered as a lobbyist? And how many outside political consultants does this policy currently apply to, and to [crosstalk 00:07:26]?”

We submitted to, I think comparatively, the highest standards than any previous administration has advanced. I encourage those that want to learn more about it to take a look at what we put out over the weekend. I would encourage others to consider similar standards in terms of their work. As it relates to details of individuals and all of that, happy to follow up and provide that for Sophia.

Thank you.

Okay? So with that, let me again thank everybody for their time and attention and thank you for listening to all those Q&As as well. And thanks to all these folks. Thank you, Greg Adams. And again, thank you to supervisor [Salise 00:35:09] and your outstanding mayor, Mayor [inaudible 00:08:11]. Thank you all very much.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom COVID-19 Press Conference Transcript December 14

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