San Francisco to open second mass vaccination site at Moscone Center

The Moscone Center will open Friday as San Francisco’s second mass Covid-19 vaccination site, Mayor London Breed announced Thursday.

The operation will be led by Kaiser Permanente with help from the California Primary Care Association and a consortium of statewide health care organizations, including Adventist Health, the California Medical Association, CommonSpirit/Dignity and Futuro Health.

The new site will first serve health care workers and those over the age of 65 by appointment through the state’s MyTurn website, but appointments have quickly filled, according to city officials.

City officials said once vaccine supply ramps up across the state, they expect the site to administer between 7,000 to 10,000 doses per day.

Mayor London Breed said in a statement:

“We are working every day to set up systems to get people vaccinated as soon as we have the supply.”

The City’s first high-volume vaccination site was launched on Jan. 22 at the City College of San Francisco’s Ocean Avenue campus.

Applauding partnerships that made the vaccination sites possible, Department of Public Health Director Dr. Grant Colfax said in a statement:

“These partnerships with health care providers are key to meeting our goal of vaccinating everyone who lives or works in San Francisco in order to help bring an end to this pandemic.”

The announcement came during a Board of Supervisors Government Audit and Oversight Committee hearing on an emergency ordinance proposal introduced by Supervisor Matt Haney.

In a Twitter thread posted Thursday, Haney said the “Vaccinate SF” emergency ordinance would “require a comprehensive vaccine plan, data transparency, [and] a communications plan including creation of a portal (online/phone/etc) for appointments.” 

While Haney celebrated the Moscone Center announcement, he added:

“But we know we have a long way to go. Even when we look at surrounding counties, there are clearly ways where we can improve our administration communication and transparency.”

As of Wednesday, city data showed 121,664 people have so far either received the first or second dose of the vaccine. City officials said in a hearing last month that they have a goal of vaccinating 900,000 people in The City by the end of June.

Deputy Director of Public Health Naveena Bobba said The City’s vaccine strategy that involves both community-based and large-scale sites, pharmacy partners and the San Francisco Health Network.

Bobba said:

“Our goal is to create a network of vaccination sites to get as many people vaccinated as soon as possible, especially as the supply increases, and we’re seeking to provide as many options as possible for people to obtain their vaccine.”

She noted that lack of dose supply has been an obstacle in planning additional vaccination sites.

Bobba said that city officials are discussing ways to combine testing and vaccination sites and are working with community partners to identify storage sites and staffing.

While The City does have a website that provides a list of vaccination site locations and links to book appointments, many providers use different appointment methods. Haney called the process “messy” and urged officials to establish a centralized appointment site.

Bobba said The City is currently working through proposals to create such a site. Explaining why some vaccination sites are not represented on the current list, she said:

“There are places in The City that we really want to have a very targeted approach, that that specific neighborhood actually gets vaccinated as opposed to kind of everybody in the city coming in to try to get a vaccine at a specific site.”

Once approved by the board and signed by the mayor, DPH would have seven days to submit the comprehensive plan to supervisors and publish data on its website.

Supervisor Rafael Mandelman asked if DPH would be able to meet the seven-day deadline if the ordinance passes.

Executive Director Mary Ellen Carroll of the Department of Emergency Management said she felt comfortable with the ordinance, but said it would take more time to get specific data online.

The emergency ordinance goes to a full vote at Tuesday’s Board of Supervisor’s meeting.

Jerold Chinn

Jerold serves as a reporter and San Francisco Bureau Chief for SFBay covering transportation and occasionally City Hall and the Mayor's Office in San Francisco. His work on transportation has been recognized by the San Francisco Press Club. Born and raised in San Francisco, he graduated from San Francisco State University with a degree in journalism. Jerold previously wrote for the San Francisco Public Press, a nonprofit, noncommercial news organization. When not reporting, you can find Jerold taking Muni to check out new places to eat in the city.