OC’s coronavirus vaccine app Othena could be irrelevant when Blue Shield takes over statewide distribution

OC’s coronavirus vaccine app Othena could be irrelevant when Blue Shield takes over statewide distribution

Bernadette Boden-Albala, founding dean of UC Irvine’s public health program, said she’s worried the distribution switch will hamper efforts to get vaccines to OC’s hardest hit communities. “It’s going to be problematic.” Boden-Albala said in a phone interview last week. “The bottom line is that we finally ironed out a lot of the wrinkles here because it took a whole community to do that, and a responsive Orange County Heatlh Care Agency. Now we have to stop and go with this third party administrator.”