State confirms Pierce County is getting fair share of vaccine doses

An investigation confirms Pierce County is getting its share of COVID-19 vaccine.

“Pierce County is getting 100% of its pro rata doses from the state of Washington. This is clear, unequivocal fact, and anybody who says otherwise is simply wrong,” Gov. Jay Inslee said.

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Nick Streuli, the governor’s external affairs officer, explained that the military, veterans’ hospitals, and some other providers that the federal government sends doses to are not required to report their vaccination rates to the state, which can make the numbers look skewed.

Streuli says it’s impossible to know Pierce County’s exact vaccination rate because Joint Base Lewis-McChord is not releasing its vaccination numbers.

“We know that tens of thousands of individuals have been vaccinated with these doses in Washington, civilian and military, many of them in Pierce County,” he said.

“Any time a county falls behind in pro rata, we engage very directly with that county to work quickly to catch them up and make sure we understand what happened,” Streuli added.

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Earlier this month, after Pierce County had to roll back to Phase 2, Pierce County Executive Bruce Dammeier told KIRO Radio that the county was not getting its fair share of vaccine.

“As we look at the vaccine distribution throughout the state of Washington, we have been highlighting the fact that we think Pierce County has been falling behind for over two months and we’re still falling behind, and further behind,” Dammeier said previously. “By my estimation, we’re 55,000 vaccines behind the state average for a county by population.”

The Lakewood City Council and Lakewood’s mayor sent a letter to the governor making the same accusation, and noting that there’s a “relatively high percentage of the residents of Lakewood are economically disadvantaged or are members of communities of color that are disproportionately impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic.”

“Even if we receive our proportionate share of vaccine, our residents are at a disproportionate risk of illness and negative economic impact. An under allocation is unconscionable,” the letter read.

As of April 15, everyone in Washington state age 16 or older is now eligible for the COVID-19 vaccine. Anyone who was eligible in an earlier phase or tier remains eligible. Find a vaccine location near you online here, or call 800-525-0127 to get help finding an appointment.

The KIRO Radio Newsdesk contributed to this report.

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