By Jorge Casuso

November 30, 2023 -- Los Angeles County heath officials are urging that everyone over 6 months of age be vaccinated despite near record-low hospitalization and death rates.

The call comes as the number of doses of the updated vaccine administered countywide has fallen far short of projections, according to County data released Thursday.

Since the new updated COVID-19 vaccine was made available in mid-September, some 807,000 of the County's more than 10 million residents have been given the shot, County Health officials reported.

In Santa Monica, 15,867 residents -- or 17 percent of the population -- are up to date with their vaccinations, data released on Thursday show.

That's far short of the 64 percent of County residents who said they plan to get the updated vaccine, according to a survey conducted last month by USC's Pandemic Research Center, in collaboration with LA County Public Health.

"Heading into December, some residents may be questioning whether they missed the window of opportunity to get effective protection against this winter’s respiratory viruses before holiday festivities begin," Health officials said Thursday.

"The best time to get vaccinated is at least two weeks before gathering, but there is still a benefit for getting vaccines at any time."

The high level of vaccine hesitancy nationwide is reflected in a steep drop in revenue projections by Pfizer, which slashed projected sales of its vaccine by $2 billion this year, according to financial reports.

The pharmaceutical giant also has projected a loss of $7 billion for Paxlovid, an anti-virus medication used to treat COVID.

“We are in the middle of the Covid fatigue,” Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla said during an investor call on October 16. “Nobody wants to speak about Covid. We have the big anti-vaccination rhetoric.”

That is a big turnaround from the first two years of the pandemic, when government and mainstream media censured criticisms of COVID vaccines.

Recent documents leaked by a source close to the House Judiciary Committee indicate the Biden administration worked closely with You-Tube to remove alleged vaccine "misinformation," according to Fox business.

"(T)here is a very high degree of interest now coming from the White House now regarding vaccine misinfo/vaccine hesitancy and our work around borderline content," the internal email from YouTube read.

"Unfortunately, the role of tech in addressing vaccine hesitancy is about to come under a massive spotlight particularly as the supply of the vaccine is soon to outpace demand," the April 2021 correspondence added.

The most recent vaccination push by County health officials comes as the County's Hospital Admission Level remains low, with 4.3 new COVID-19 hospitalizations per 100,000 people.

A total of 396 people were hospitalized with COVID in the County of more than 10 million, according to data released Thursday.

There was an average of 1.6 daily deaths over the past week of people with COVID, the data show.

There have been a total of 3,811,975 laboratory confirmed cases in the County, excluding Long Beach and Pasadena after June 27. That number does not include the results of home tests.

A total of 36,836 LA County residents have died with COVID since the first death was reported on March 11, 2020, the data show.

In Santa Monica, 561 residents have tested positive over the past 14 weeks -- a weekly average of 40 laboratory confirmed cases. There have been four COVID-related deaths over the same period.