COVID-19 Vaccines: What You Need to Know

As our national public health experts remind us, we are in the “eye of the storm” of the COVID-19 pandemic.  There are now at least 3 genetic variations of the Coronavirus in the United States — they are referred to as Brazil, United Kingdom, and South African.  The United Kingdom variant appears to be more easily transmissible and may be more deadly.  That’s why we must vaccinate as rapidly as possible … to stop the new variants before they run rampant here in the United States.  Mass-vaccination is our best available tool to get to the other side of this public health crisis.

Orange County is currently vaccinating at a rate of just 2% a week.  This is simply not good enough!  We must ramp up vaccination programs across the County as quickly as possible.

I receive calls every day from anxious friends and neighbors.  They want to know how to get vaccinated — and how to navigate the County’s problematic scheduling process.

Right now, Orange County residents can schedule vaccine appointments through Othena.com. 

Local pharmacies and hospitals are also administering COVID-19 vaccines throughout Orange County, including here in Irvine.  To find out which pharmacies and hospitals are scheduling vaccine appointments, click here.

In advance of receiving the vaccine, I recommend you take a look at the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) fact sheets on the COVID-19 vaccines that have been approved in the United States.  To view information regarding the Moderna vaccine, click here.  To view information about the Pfizer BioNTech vaccine, click here.

UCI Health continues to be another trusted source for COVID-19 information.  For the UCI Health COVID-19 Vaccine FAQ page, click here.