Non-frontline workers reportedly jumped vaccine line, Garcetti says things have now tightened up

A line of anxious, but grateful healthcare workers is filling up eight pop-up vaccine distribution centers run by a new Los Angeles city-county partnership.

I spoke with a Doctor and an EMT at Hazard Park in Boyle Heights near USC's medical campus, where a tennis court has been converted to a pop-up vaccine site. 

They are both thankful and very appreciative that they were among the "first tier" to be eligible for the vaccine. We visited the vaccine sites here, in Encino and in the city of San Fernando because of reports that in the initial rollout, non-healthcare workers just showed up and apparently got their vaccines without getting their IDs verified or employers checked.

Mayor Eric Garcetti, who was at four new locations on Wednesday, told me that "we’ve tightened things up considerably. Everyone has to show ID and prove that they are healthcare workers."

He also said that if they’ve done 1,000 vaccinations and a few dozen were given out mistakenly that "that’s a pretty good batting average," given that this is a brand new program. In fact, the city and the county program seems to be an excellent use of shared resources and manpower to ramp up the speed and scope of the vaccination program beyond hospitals and private providers.

Mayor Garcetti told me he would be open to the city taking over the whole program from the county to get the vaccines in as many arms as possible as quickly as possible.

Get your top stories delivered daily! Sign up for FOX 11’s Fast 5 newsletter. And, get breaking news alerts in the FOX 11 News app. Download for iOS or Android.