One town in Fresno County excels in COVID vaccinations. How the others stack up
A small farming town tucked among the vineyards and orchards outside of Fresno has the distinction of having a higher percentage of its residents fully vaccinated against COVID-19 than any other community in Fresno County or across the central San Joaquin Valley.
Biola, perched along Shaw Avenue a few miles west of Fresno and a few miles north of Kerman, has a population of fewer than 1,500 people, according to last year’s U.S. Census. Of that number, more than 800 are over the age of 12 and eligible to get a coronavirus shot.
As of this week, the community has achieved a vaccination rate of more than 80% since the first COVID-19 shots became available in mid-December. That means four out of five eligible residents have either received one shot of the single-dose Johnson & Johnson vaccine, or both doses of either the Moderna or Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, according to data from the California Department of Public Health.
Additionally, almost 94% of eligible residents in Biola’s 93606 ZIP code are at least partially vaccinated against the coronavirus.
Together, the rates of partially and fully vaccinated residents in Biola far exceed many other cities, communities or ZIP code areas with populations of at least 300 people in Fresno County or its neighboring counties.
Collectively, about 58% of Fresno County’s vaccine-eligible population are fully vaccinated. That’s almost 492,000 people out of about 841,000 people ages 12 and older. More than two-thirds of eligible residents have gotten at least one shot.
That, however, means that almost one-third of residents who are vaccine eligible are wholly unvaccinated, yet to receive even one dose.
Who’s at the top, who’s near the bottom?
When one adds in the approximately 191,000 people in Fresno County for whom vaccines are not yet available – mostly children under the age of 12 – the number of people who aren’t vaccinated climbs to more than 468,000.
Fresno County’s second most-vaccinated community is the sprawling 93619 ZIP code that includes northeast Clovis and a large rural area north and east of the city. There, almost 80% of the vaccine-eligible residents are fully vaccinated, and about 89% have at least one shot.
Rounding out the five most-vaccinated communities or ZIP codes in Fresno County are Shaver Lake and the surrounding 93664 ZIP code, 78.7% fully vaccinated, 87.5% with at least one shot; the 93730 ZIP code in northeast Fresno, 77.2% fully vaccinated, 85.5% with at least one shot; and the community of San Joaquin and the 93660 ZIP code in western Fresno County, 72.7% fully vaccinated, 89.2% with at least one shot.
Joe Prado, assistant director of the Fresno County Department of Public Health, said Friday that vaccination success in Biola and other rural towns in which 60% or more of eligible residents are now fully vaccinated has come down to an early start to providing access to the shots.
Prado said a pilot project to reach out to workers in the food and agriculture industries, including farms and packing houses, “helped us get into those communities” and have early conversations with residents in those rural areas. Biola, he said, was one place where a mobile pop-up clinic at packing operations saw a large response of workers getting vaccinated early on.
At the other end of the spectrum are towns or neighborhoods in which fewer than half of the vaccine-eligible residents have completed their shots. They include:
- Coalinga and the 93210 ZIP code in southwestern Fresno County, 36.8% fully vaccinated, 44.8% with at least one shot, and 55.2% unvaccinated.
- Squaw Valley and the 93675 ZIP code in the Sierra foothills east of Fresno, 40.6% fully vaccinated, 45.9% with at least one shot, and 54.1% unvaccinated.
- Downtown Fresno’s 93721 ZIP code, 40.8% fully vaccinated, 51.5% with at least one shot, and 48.5% unvaccinated.
- The foothill community of Tollhouse and the 93667 ZIP code, 42.5% fully vaccinated, 47.1% with at least one shot, and 52.9% unvaccinated.
- Another foothill town, Auberry and the 93602 ZIP code, 44.6% fully vaccinated, 50.5% with at least one shot, and 49.5% unvaccinated.
- Laton and the 93234 ZIP code, along the Kings River in southern Fresno County, 45.6% fully vaccinated, 52.2% with at least one shot, and 47.8% unvaccinated.
- Prather and the 93651 ZIP Code in the eastern foothills, 48.4% fully vaccinated, 55.3% with at least one shot, and 44.7% unvaccinated.
- Northeast Fresno’s 93710 ZIP code, 49.8% fully vaccinated, 57% with at least one shot, and 43% wholly unvaccinated.
Why are there disparities?
The disparities in vaccination rates between communities or neighborhoods in Fresno County and across the Valley are the result of multiple factors: social and economic challenges that raise barriers for people to get to a doctor or a clinic for their shots to language or cultural challenges that stand in the way of understanding how the vaccines work or provoke uncertainty over their safety in immigrant communities.
In Fresno County, health officials have worked closely with a range of community-based organizations with a track record of outreach to low-income and disadvantaged rural and urban neighborhoods – areas that often have larger proportions of racial or ethnic minorities including Black, Latino, Hmong and immigrant populations – to increase acceptance of vaccines.
Such areas have not only been disproportionately affected by the coronavirus pandemic. At the same time, they are also the areas that generally have the least access to COVID-19 testing and, in recent months, to vaccines intended to bring the pandemic to a close.
“The COVID-19 pandemic has shone a very bright light on health disparities, not only in our state but in our country and around the world, for that matter,” Dr. John Zweifler, a Fresno physician, author and physician consultant to the Fresno County Department of Public Health, said earlier this year. “In some places (there are) really staggeringly high rates of hospitalizations and deaths in minority communities that are very discouraging and need to be addressed at a fundamental level.
To overcome those barriers, the county and its partners have hosted pop-up or mobile vaccination clinics in rural communities and urban neighborhoods.
“In some of those areas, we’ve had a large footprint with our community organizations, city leaders and clinics,” Prado said. “We have thrown everything at them: incentives (such as prizes or gift certificates), taco trucks, music and more.”
That hasn’t necessarily worked everywhere, though. There remains a considerable amount of vaccine hesitancy or reluctance based on a lack of reliable information. “That hesitancy comes in all shapes and sizes,” Prado said. “The people who are still on the fence – it’s not a fence, it’s a rock, and they’re not moving from that rock at all.”
“We’ve had victories (in those areas) because we’ve been able to find those leaders, credible leaders” who can educate people about the vaccines, added Dr. Rais Vohra, Fresno County’s interim health officer.
A major concern for health officials has been the intransigence of residents and, in some instances, political leaders who remain skeptical about the COVID-19 pandemic, eschew widely recommended safety measures including wearing face masks to inhibit the spread of the virus, and mistrust vaccines in favor of alternative forms of treatment.
“It’s just another symptom of the ‘infodemic,’” Vohra told reporters in August. “In the very same way that COVID presents with a constellation of symptoms, this information pandemic that we’re struggling with also presents us with a constellation of symptoms.”
“People doubt the layers of protection” including face masks and social distancing to limit transmission of the virus, he said. “They doubt the efficacy of the vaccines, they seek out alternative and unproven cures, and they express skepticism whenever the leaders of the hospitals are telling them that the hospitals are at or over capacity.”
“That constellation of symptoms is a sign that someone has been infected by viral misinformation,” Vohra added. “I feel sorry for them. I wish I had a vaccine for that and a cure for that. But really it’s up to everyone to protect themselves and inoculate themselves with the truth.”
Elsewhere in the Valley
Across about 100 Valley ZIP codes for which data is available from the California Department of Public Health, the lowest vaccination rate in Kings, Madera and Tulare counties is in Corcoran and the surrounding 93212 ZIP code in Kings County.
Of more than 20,000 vaccine-eligible residents in the Corcoran area, only about 25% have been fully vaccinated, and less than 32% have gotten any coronavirus shot at all. More than two-thirds of the residents over the age of 12 remain wholly unvaccinated, yet to receive even one vaccine dose.
Corcoran is but one of nine Valley ZIP codes outside of Fresno County in which at least half the eligible residents remain unvaccinated. They include:
- Unincorporated Raymond and the 93653 ZIP code in Madera County’s foothills, 32.5% fully vaccinated, 64.5% unvaccinated.
- Posey, an unincorporated community along the southern edge of Tulare County and the surrounding 93260 ZIP code, 36.6% fully vaccinated, 58.2% unvaccinated.
- The city of Chowchilla and the 93610 ZIP code in Madera County, 36.2% fully vaccinated, 58.1% unvaccinated.
- Unincorporated Tipton and the 93272 ZIP code in southern Tulare County, 36.8% fully vaccinated, 57.7% unvaccinated.
- The city of Lemoore and surrounding 93245 ZIP code in Kings County, 40.5% fully vaccinated, 52.6% unvaccinated.
- The unincorporated community of Badger and the 93603 ZIP code in the mountains of eastern Tulare County, 41.7% fully vaccinated, 52% unvaccinated.
- Strathmore, an unincorporated community in southeastern Tulare County and the surrounding 93267 ZIP code, 42.6% fully vaccinated, 50.6% unvaccinated.
- The unincorporated town of California Hot Springs and the 93207 ZIP code in the mountains of southeastern Tulare County, 41.7% fully vaccinated, 50.1% unvaccinated.
The highest vaccine rate in the Valley outside of Fresno County is in the 93258 ZIP code that covers part of the city of Porterville, in Tulare County. There, 80% of eligible residents are fully vaccinated, and less than 6% are unvaccinated.
“Healthcare providers and community partners within the city of Porterville have implemented an aggressive COVID vaccination campaign for its residents,” said Carrie Monteiro, a spokesperson for the Tulare County Health & Human Services Agency. “Sierra View Medical Center, Imperial Ambulance, and the city of Porterville have partnered together to offer $100 vaccine incentives to community members who get vaccinated against COVID.”
The gift cards to local Porterville businesses are being provided by the city, paid for with federal funds from the American Rescue Plan Act.
A series of “vaccine roundup” events got shots to hundreds of residents in August and September, Monteiro added.
Like their counterparts in Fresno County, Tulare County’s public health agency is “partnering with community-based organizations and trusted messengers in providing mobile vaccination clinics to communities throughout Tulare County,” Monteiro said.
The county is also working with schools and employers to coordinate on-site clinics for both COVID and flu vaccinations for students, staff and employees.
This story was originally published October 2, 2021 at 11:04 AM.
