Thread by @WADeptHealth

The Washington State Department of Health stands with Governor Inslee in being dismayed at reports of such egregiously inappropriate behavior regarding “invitation-only” vaccine clinics. We do not condone this behavior, and we have never allowed it.

Since COVID-19 vaccine planning began, equity has been the primary focus of the state’s distribution effort, and to see such cavalier disregard for allocation strategy that prioritizes the most at-risk and disproportionately impacted populations is unacceptable.

Plainly said, this kind of practice is inequitable, wrong, and must stop immediately. Facilities or organizations found to engage in this practice risk not receiving additional shipments of vaccines.

Furthermore, vaccine allocation was always going to expand beyond hospitals to allow more community access in ways that are culturally responsive and accessible.

It made sense that, in the early weeks of vaccination, the majority of vaccine went to hospitals because we needed to reach the most at-risk workers in health care settings and protect our healthcare infrastructure.

Now, we are spreading limited vaccine among many more sites where people can get vaccinated, including pharmacies, community health centers, local public health, and mass vaccination sites.

The bottom line is that the demand for vaccine greatly outpaces the amount of vaccine we have available.

We can’t reach all providers.

For next week, we had requests for over 358,000 first doses, and our first-dose allocation was only 107,000 doses. This is why our message to and request of the people of Washington right now is patience – your turn is coming.

To the providers and health care workers working each and every day to get the people of Washington vaccinated, we offer a heartfelt thank you.

The hours are long, the work is challenging, and the supply is not sufficient to meet needs, but the effort we’ve seen across the state to get people vaccinated, from small clinics to mass vaccination sites, has been inspiring.

This is the Washington we know and the spirit we’ve come to count on – and the legacy we want to leave behind when COVID-19 is behind us.