VANCOUVER, Wash. — At a community meeting on Facebook, Monday, a state health official said, "...the statewide vaccination plans are going well." It was apparent that many disagreed with her based on the comments that came rolling in shortly after.
Assistant environmental health secretary Lauren Jenks qualified the success of vaccination plans by adding, “They are limited by the amount of vaccine that is coming into the state and that is limited by the amount of vaccine that the manufacturers can make.”
Jenks said Washington state has 1.7 million people eligible for the vaccine right now. But the state is currently getting just 100,000 first doses a week from the federal government, even though the state is currently capable, through mass vaccination clinics and other agencies and providers, of administering 300,000 doses a week.
Bottom line: not enough vaccine is the biggest hurdle.
And that makes signing up like a lottery. On Sunday, 4,000 appointments opened up for the state's mass vaccination site at the Clark County Fairgrounds this week. The online system run by Safeway stores filled up in a half-hour. And it left a lot of people stuck in a confirmation holding pattern for hours, never to get a spot.
“It's just very frustrating to not be able to go ahead and get it to work and to get that magic appointment,” said Barbara Riggs of Battle Ground on Sunday afternoon, after spending hours stuck in signup limbo.
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The signup issue was by far the thing most people were fired up about at the virtual town hall. A local health official shared in the distress.
“Unfortunately, there is not a single place you can go to get on a waiting list; I want to acknowledge this is frustrating,” said Dr. Steven Krager, tri-county deputy health officer for Clark, Cowlitz and Skamania counties.
For now, the mass vaccination site will continue to use its own sign up system. For any other options, Dr. Krager said you should go to your county health website and get on the waiting list. It may take several weeks to hear back.
“This process is confusing, we want to streamline this as much as possible but it's what we have right now,” said Krager.
However, there are certainly successes to claim in Washington’s vaccination process.
Vaccinations are increasing, and the state has now inoculated more than 500,000 people with first doses, more than have been infected with the disease in the state. And the four new mass vaccination clinics, including the one at the Clark County Fairgrounds, are vaccinating more people than their goal of 500 people a day, in their first week.
This week the fairgrounds site is set to vaccinate 4,000 more people who were fortunate enough to get an appointment.