To have all adults eligible for vaccine by May, Washington needs increased supply

On Thursday, President Biden set a May 1 target to have all adults in the United States eligible for the COVID-19 vaccine.

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In order to accomplish that goal in Washington state, Gov. Jay Inslee said the federal government “will need to come through with increased doses and infrastructure.”

Inslee noted that the state’s current priority for vaccine distribution is to get vaccinations to the elderly, as well as critical workers in congregate settings. Once those people are taken care of, “then we will turn our attention to the broader population consistent with the president’s announcement.”

“Continued close partnership between the state and the Biden administration will be essential, and I look forward to talking to them about this and explore ways it will be done,” Inslee described. “The day is coming soon when all Washingtonians who want a vaccine can get one.”

Health officer Dr. Jeff Duchin with Public Health — Seattle & King County agrees with the governor. He said Friday that the goal from the president is great, but eligibility in and of itself doesn’t guarantee access to the vaccine.

“What needs to come with that eligibility is vaccine supply,” Duchin said. “Right now, we have many more people eligible in the county than we have doses for. And we know that in the next 10 days, we’re going to have approximately 400,000 newly eligible or total eligible, but our doses aren’t going to increase proportionally.”

Those newly eligible people Duchin refers to will be those in Phase 1B, Tier 2, now expected to open on March 17. That tier includes workers in agriculture, food processing, grocery stores, public transit, firefighters, and law enforcement, among others. It also includes people over the age of 16 who are pregnant or have a disability that puts them at high risk for severe illness.

“Everyone needs to understand that although people are becoming eligible very quickly, the eligibility is outpacing the vaccine supply,” Duchin said.

Over time, he expects the delays between the time when someone becomes eligible and when they can access the vaccine will decrease, and vaccine supply will increase.

“I’m very optimistic that with our disease rates decreasing, people will be able to remain safer if they continue to take precautions,” he said. “And we’ll have fewer people hospitalized and dying because we’re vaccinating the highest risk people first. So we’re moving in the right direction in many fronts, but patience is still going to be required for the next several months.”

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As far as how Dr. Duchin feels about the goal for Americans to safely gather by July 4, also expressed by President Biden on Thursday, he replied: “I love it. How could you not love it?”

However, Duchin said being able to gather on July 4 will depend on us “being smart and being lucky.” He explained that there are a few things that have to work in our favor to get to that point.

“If we do not do things that accelerate the pace of the epidemic, if we continue to be smart about COVID-19 prevention and suppress transmission, and we don’t let the new variants gain a foothold, and at the same time, we continue to vaccinate as many people as possible, I believe that by July 4 it is quite possible that we will have reached that equilibrium where we have large numbers of vaccinated Americans and we have low numbers of COVID-19,” he said.

“And, hopefully, low numbers of variant strains, that our vaccines remain effective against the new viruses that emerge over time, and that we can have some really nice barbeques again,” he added.

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