Officials consider mass vaccine event in Malibu

Michele Willer-Allred, Staff Reporter – 10:48 pm PST January 7, 2021 – Malibu Surfside News

With a COVID vaccine nowhere to be found in Malibu, city officials along with the medical community are in talks about hosting a mass vaccination in the city once doses arrive.

During the Public Safety Commission meeting on Wednesday, Commissioner Doug Stewart said he has been talking up the issue with city Public Safety Manager Susan Duenas and City Manager Reva Feldman.

“It became apparent as we looked at the weekend when California advised us that they had almost 2 million doses of vaccine and only 400,000 had been administered … we’re not seeing anything here in Malibu,” Stewart explained.

Stewart said the city group, along with doctors in Malibu, had plans to meet via Zoom to discuss a mass vaccination program.

Stewart added that the general consensus so far is that Malibu medical offices only get a small number of doses, then a mass vaccination effort isn’t necessary.

However, if the several thousand doses that were requested come through, a program would need to be in place.

“In the absence of more senior government agencies saying ‘This is how we’re going to do it,’ we decided it would probably be better if we talked amongst ourselves, deciding what we need logistically and physically to be able to pull this off if the opportunity did arise,” Stewart said. “Because what we don’t want to do is have the vaccine on the way to us and figure out how we’re going to implement it.”

Stewart said it has been wonderful to see the cooperation of medical professionals in town, who were actually anxious for something to be started in Malibu.

“We’ll see what comes out of that, and hopefully the vaccines do show up,” he said.

Public Safety Commission Chair Chris Frost said he’s proud of the group for trying to make vaccinations happen.

“Every one of us that didn’t know anybody that knew anybody that had COVID back in March (2020) now probably knows somebody who has passed away from it,” Frost said. “So, this is so important that we get this done, get out from underneath this shadow that we’re in, and get life back to normal so to speak, or at least better than what we’ve seen.”

Duenas said the COVID testing site at City Hall is taking a short break because Malibu Medical, which has been administering the tests drive-thru fashion at Malibu City Hall, is trying to catch up with paperwork.

Duenas said testing will probably resume in the next week or so, but she is still awaiting confirmation.