CA Health Dept. Spox Mum On Long Beach Bending State Rules To Vax ILWU Dockworkers Now And Vax Mayor/Concilmembers in mid-January

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(Feb. 23, 2021) -- A spokesman for the CA Dept. of Public Health (CDPH) has declined to respond to an inquiry from LBREPORT.com (outlet now in our 21st year online) as to whether CDPH approves or disapproves of local entities (such as the City of Long Beach) enabling COVID-19 vaccinations for ILWU-represented dockworkers who aren't within CDPH's vaccine prioritizing categories.

LBREPORT.com's inquiry, directed to CDPH spokesman Darrel Ng before the start of the Feb 23 business day, also sought to learn if CDPH had commuicated on the ILWU matter with the City and/or Port of Long Beach and if so, roughly when and what CDPH said and to whom. By our inquiry's 3 p;.m. indicated deadline, we received no reponse.

LBREPORT.com also inquired as to whether Mr. Ng was accurately quoted in telling a competing publication [in the context of the ILWU vaccinations) that state "guidelines can be tweaked by local health departments to reflect local priorities."

The City's actions with respect to ILWU broke on Feb. 15 via Thed Maritime Exeucitve and LBREPORT.com followed up on Feb. 22.

LBREPORT.com also took the opportunity to follow-up on an inquiry we made to CDPH on January 26, 2021 as to whether the agency approved allowing elected officials not within the 65+ or other 1B specifically enumerated categories to receive vaccinations and if so in what cities, on what basis and citing what authority? We likewise received no responsive response to that inquiry.

As previously reported by LBREPORT.com, the City of LB abent state vaccination rules to enable long Beach Mayor Garcia and LB Councilmembers to receive COVID-19 vaccinations on Jan. 14. At that time and for weeks therafter, a number of LB residents within prioritized groups found themselves unable to make appointments through the City's "VaxLB" website and some still haven't. Social network comments and emailed responses to LBREPORT.com have been mixed. A number of LB residents unable to get appointments through the City of LB turned to the LA County Dept. of Public Health for vaccinations.

CDPH is an state agency dirfected/managed by Gov. Gavin Newsom's administration. .