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Marin County health officials expect to begin the first coronavirus vaccinations as soon as late December with a priority on immunizing frontline health care workers first.

The vaccine developed by the Manhattan-based Pfizer company is anticipated to be the first to gain U.S. approval sometime in mid-December. Pfizer’s vaccine must be transported and stored at ultra-cold temperatures of at least -94 degrees Fahrenheit — more than four times colder than the South Pole in Antarctica was at noontime Monday.

This requires specialized freezers typically only found at college campuses and research institutes. Fortunately, Marin County has both.

Three local research institutions — BioMarin, the Buck Institute for Research on Aging and Dominican University — are offering the county their ultra-cold freezers for free once the vaccines arrive.

“Fortunately in Marin, we’re able to leverage these public-private partnerships and all three of those partners eagerly stepped forward to offer resources,” Marin County Public Health Officer Matt Willis said. “We’ve got freezers identified at those three locations, which are going to allow us to store the Pfizer vaccine within Marin.

“Those become local hubs of distribution for the doses that would go along with the very first phases,” Willis continued. “So we’re talking about the first tier, which is not the general public. We’re talking about essential health care workers, hospital workers, staff at long-term care facilities, first responders and other highest priority groups that are part of our critical infrastructure.”

The Pfizer vaccine requires two doses spaced out three weeks to be effective. At least 10,000 people in Marin County will need to receive vaccines in the first phase, Willis said, which means at least 20,000 Pfizer vaccine doses will be needed.

Exactly how many doses Marin will receive in the first round is unclear, Willis said. Gov. Gavin Newsom announced Monday that the state will be receiving 327,000 doses of the Pfizer vaccine in mid-December assuming the U.S. Food and Drug Administration grants emergency approval to distribute it.

Pfizer states its trials show the vaccine is 95% effective in preventing people from contracting COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2.

Access to ultra-cold freezers likely will only be important for the first rounds of vaccination, Willis said. Other vaccines being developed by companies such as Moderna and AstraZeneca can be stored in typical medical-grade refrigerators found at hospitals and pharmacies. This will be important later when mass vaccinations on the general population are taking place, which Willis estimates could start in spring 2021. Moderna submitted an application for emergency approval with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration on Monday and states its vaccine could be authorized for distribution in mid-December.

How many doses can be stored in the ultra-cold freezers being made available in Marin is still being determined, according to the research groups. Both the Buck Institute and Dominican University plan to offer three ultra-cold freezers each that can reach temperatures of at least -94 degrees Fahrenheit.

If needed, Marin could access other freezers at nearby institutions such as the University of California San Francisco, Willis said.

The Novato-based Buck Institute, which specializes in research of aging and age-related diseases, typically uses its freezers for storing biological samples — some of which are set to be cleared out to make room for vaccines.

“It behooves us to really help,” said Eric Verdin, the institute’s president and chief executive officer. “This is the issue of our time. I would not want to be missing on the opportunity for Marin County to know that the Buck is helping.”

The institute has shifted its focus on studying the coronavirus given its significant effects on the older population. In addition to the freezers, the institute had also scoured its labs for testing tubes in March when the county was scrambling to get enough materials for coronavirus testing.

Dominican University, a private university based in San Rafael, typically uses its ultra-cold freezers to store samples for research in its biological sciences and biochemistry programs, according to university communications director Sarah Gardner.

BioMarin will be donating “several” ultra-cold freezers, according to company spokeswoman Debra Charlesworth.

“BioMarin will assist with the transfer and installation of the units for the county,” she wrote in an emailed statement. “The company uses these types of freezers in its operations to store pharmaceutical products, reagents used in laboratory experiments, and clinical samples.”

Pfizer plans to deliver 50 million doses of its vaccine globally before the end of the year and another 1.3 billion doses by the end of 2021. The vaccine will be shipped in containers with dry ice, which is good for 10 days of storage. Once received the vaccine can be stored for another five days in typical medical-grade refrigerators of 35-46 degrees Fahrenheit. Ultra-cold freezers, however, extend the vaccines’ shelf life by six months, allowing for greater flexibility for when they are used.

If approved by the FDA this month, Moderna states it could ship about 20 million doses by the end of the year. Similar to the Pfizer vaccine, the Moderna vaccine requires two doses to be effective but spaced out over four weeks.

The rollout of who gets the vaccine first before others will be decided by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and California Department of Public Health, Willis said.

“We’re also working with the health officers across the Bay Area to make sure there is a fair and equitable process regionally,” Willis said.

A CDC advisory group voted on Tuesday to recommend health care workers and nursing home residents receive priority. The two groups encompass around 24 million Americans out of a U.S. population of about 330 million. Residents of long-term care facilities have been the hardest hit in Marin, accounting for about 84% of total deaths.

Assuring the public’s trust in the vaccine also will be vital to the success of achieving immunization levels needed to prevent widespread infection, Willis said. Information about the vaccines and trials so far have come through company press releases and have been the subject of politicization, Willis said. The state has established a commission of scientists to independently review the vaccine trials to ensure safety and effectiveness.

Marin County has had issues with vaccinations in the past, Willis said. In 2013, the county had one the lowest childhood vaccination rates in the state at 78% but has since improved the rate to about 95% in 2020, he said. SB 277, which became law in 2016, eliminated all non-medical exemptions to vaccine requirements for enrolling children in public or private elementary and secondary school.

“People are going to need to be assured of its safety and effectiveness before we would expect widespread adoption of this,” Willis said of the coronavirus vaccine. “We’re also planning to lean heavily into the review process of the scientific review committees that have been established by the state.”

After more than 10 years of planning, Sonoma State University is proud to announce the groundbreaking of the Stevenson Hall Renovation Project, which is designed to refresh the building into a 21st century academic learning environment and will provide educational and meeting spaces. Stevenson Hall has played such a vital role in the history of the university, including being the first building constructed on campus. We look forward to reopening its doors in Fall 2022, so it may continue to positively serve our campus community.

The renovated Stevenson Hall will house the Schools of Business and Economics, Education and Social Sciences, and will feature state-of-the-art classroom and lecture spaces. The Stevenson Hall renovation is designed to a LEED Gold sustainability standard, taking advantage of natural sunlight throughout, using green materials and enhancing energy efficiency.

We invite you to view our Virtual Groundbreaking video playlist, with recorded messages, photos, and appreciation for everyone who helped to make this project a reality and success. We encourage you to follow the metamorphosis of the building over the next year by visiting the Stevenson Hall Renovation Project website.

ABOUT US: With a student population of 9,200, Sonoma State is a regionally serving public university committed to educational access and excellence. Guided by our core values and driven by a commitment to the liberal arts and sciences, Sonoma State delivers high-quality education through innovative programs that leverage the economic, cultural and natural resources of the North Bay. See more news from SSU at http://news.sonoma.edu/

Three years after the Tubbs Fire vaporized his Santa Rosa, California, home in a 30-foot wall of flame at 2 a.m., Max Siem and his wife were just beginning to feel like things were getting back to normal.

Construction on their new house in the Coffey Park neighborhood, where 1,500 other homes were lost, was coming along, and it looked like Siem, a manager at a local Best Buy, his wife Danielle, and their daughter could finally move out of the borrowed trailer they were living in and get ready for a new life in a new home.

But the contractor they paid in advance failed to pass on some $65,000 to the construction supply store where materials were bought on credit.

A lien was placed on Siem’s new home, and lawyers from the supply store told him if he didn’t pay the $65,000, they would sell his home to satisfy the debt of the contractor.

That’s when Siem contacted Legal Aid of Sonoma County, an organization supported in part by Kaiser Permanente grants that helped Siem at no cost.

“We didn’t have a lot of money left to hire lawyers, but we had heard really good things about them,” Siem said. “They’re great people. I met with them and they said, ‘We’re going to get you taken care of; you’re not going to lose your home.’ We got released from the lien about 2 months ago, and that was a huge weight off our shoulders.”

Kaiser Permanente recently awarded the organization $500,000 for the next 2 years, and that is on top of a $90,000 grant in 2019.

Those grants are just one part of approximately $18 million Kaiser Permanente has awarded to 40 community-based organizations helping rebuild homes and lives of Sonoma County residents impacted by fires since 2017. Some examples include money for construction of affordable student housing at Santa Rosa Junior College and expanded mental health services at local public schools.

“Here’s someone who is about to lose his home, a second time, so we intervened and got the lien removed and convinced the supply store to go after the contractor,” said Ronit Rubinoff, executive director of Legal Aid of Sonoma County. “The Kaiser Permanente grants enable us to make victims of these disasters whole again by helping them with income streams and by stabilizing their housing.”

Since 2017, the organization has helped fire victims access some $8 million worth of resources in the way of unemployment insurance, home insurance payouts, Federal Emergency Management Agency benefits, recovery of funds lost to contractor fraud, eviction prevention, temporary housing, and other forms of legal advocacy.

The fire-related assistance from Kaiser Permanente to the area is part of a strategy to support the health of communities in need.

For Siem, who barely escaped the flames in 2017 and then became the victim of an unscrupulous contractor, the support has been a game changer.

“It has definitely let us breathe a lot easier.”

A $1 million grant from a prominent Northern California health care company has revived an ambitious student housing project at Santa Rosa Junior College that was in danger of being scaled back after construction costs soared over budget.

Kaiser Permanente this week announced the grant to help SRJC pay for the affordable housing complex, including apartments and dorm-style residence halls for about 350 students at the Santa Rosa campus.

With the cash injection, the $46.5 million development now can stay on its original timeline, and construction can start before the end of the year, said Pedro Avila, SRJC vice president of student services.

The five-story development, slated for the corner of Elliot Avenue and Armory Drive next to Highway 101, is under final review by the California Division of the State Architects. It’s scheduled to be available for students in fall 2022.

“The timing of (the grant) was just amazing,” Avila said. “It really helped save the project.”

The nearly 3-acre residence hall will feature a mix of single- and double-occupancy rooms, partial suites and four-bedroom apartments. Students will have access to common areas such as kitchens, lounges and patios. The cheapest units will be $950 a month, Avila said.

But some of those amenities, and the size of the complex, were being reconsidered when the project was confronted with escalating construction costs — a persistent reality for most developments throughout the fire-torn region.

Frank Chong, president of the college, said the price for materials, including steel and red brick to match the existing campus buildings, was the biggest factor in the expanded final budget, which was roughly $4.5 million more than projected.

That didn’t sit well with Santa Rosa resident Alena Wall, a regional community health manager for Kaiser, who had been interested in the project and its pitch to provide affordable housing for students struggling to afford the area’s high cost of living.

Earlier this year, Wall encouraged college officials to apply for the $1 million Kaiser grant program, which funds initiatives designed to improve community health, said J Mullineaux, executive director of the SRJC Foundation. The project grant was approved by Kaiser’s national board of directors.

Tom Hanenburg, interim president of Kaiser Permanente Northern California, said in a prepared statement that supporting student housing was a way to give back to the nearly 1,000 SRJC students who lost their homes or were affected by the 2017 North Bay firestorm.

“We are supporting the health of these communities by investing in long-term infrastructure, affordable housing and services that will help them rebuild, recover and move on with their lives,” Hanenburg said.

At-risk students who are disabled, homeless or rising out of foster care, for example, will be prioritized when the residence hall begins accepting applications. Mullineaux said various fundraising efforts are underway to create an endowment that could completely subsidize rents for some students, and help offset rent increases due to inflation.

The development was first proposed two years ago following a 2018 survey, which found that 7% of SRJC students reported they planned to leave the college after the 2017 fires, and 30% said they were considering leaving. Cost of living here was the biggest factor in every decision.

Student housing also could help the college’s budget challenges and declining enrollment, which has dropped by more than 20% over the last nine years.

A previous estimate indicated the housing will provide $3 million in revenue by 2031, and grow to more than $71 million by 2061.

SRJC previously offered dorms, but not at this scale, Chong said. As of 2015, about 28% of community colleges nationwide offered housing.

Much of the construction will take place while the campus remains empty because of the pandemic and most classes are held online until the end of the 2020-21 school year. It will also dovetail with several other projects, including the Luther Burbank Auditorium renovation, a new science, technology, engineering and math building and various athletic facility upgrades, funded through a $410 million Measure H bond offering approved by local voters in 2014.

“I’m excited beyond words,” Chong said. “With the Measure H projects … people will be coming back to an extreme makeover of a 100-year-old campus.”

https://www-pressdemocrat-com.cdn.ampproject.org/c/s/www.pressdemocrat.com/article/news/kaiser-permanente-donates-1-million-to-revive-santa-rosa-junior-college-ca/amp/