CORONAVIRUS: Monday 1/18/2021 roundup

| Coronavirus | West Seattle news

Expanded vaccination eligibility tops tonight’s pandemic roundup:

400,000 MORE ARE ELIGIBLE: As reported here during the governor’s mid-afternoon briefing, the “everyone’s eligible” age in our state has just dropped five years, to 65. But that doesn’t mean everyone 65 and older can get vaccinated immediately – not enough doses have been delivered. However, only 42 percent of what’s been received in Washington so far has been administered, so it’s hoped that broadening the eligibility will raise that percentage. The governor also says there’s a deadline now – vaccine has to be given within a week of a provider receiving it.

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW: Are you eligible? This website will tell you. If you are, it should also point you to places that have received vaccine. Also, this website has a list. In general, though, you’re urged to consult your health-care provider first.

COUNTY COUNCIL PROPOSAL: When the King County Council meets tomorrow, accelerating vaccination is on its agenda. Here’s the announcement:

With vaccination rollouts hitting snags nationwide, the King County Council will on Tuesday consider legislation to ensure all the resources of King County can be brought to bear in ensuring everyone has access to the COVID-19 vaccine.

Sponsored by King County Councilmembers Rod Dembowski, Jeanne Kohl-Welles, Reagan Dunn, and Pete Von Reichbauer, it would require the Executive to lay out a detailed and robust plan to deliver the vaccines countywide, lower barriers to access, and have most King County residents vaccinated by June, with priority for older people and others at higher risk of death. The legislation will be considered and could be approved at the full council meeting Tuesday.

The 1 pm meeting will be livestreamed here.

NEWEST KING COUNTY NUMBERS: No update today (and we haven’t yet found an explanation – the county has not skipped holidays previously) – so no daily summary from Seattle-King County Public Health.

STATEWIDE NUMBERS: See them here.

WORLDWIDE NUMBERS: 95.5 million cases, 2,022,000+ deaths. See the other stats – nation by nation – here.

GOT SOMETHING TO REPORT? westseattleblog@gmail.com or 206-293-6302, text/voice – thank you!

CAM January 19, 2021 (1:42 am)

The state has not yet given all of its 1a employees an opportunity to get the second dose and they are opening the flood gates. Are they still guaranteeing those employees and all other health care employees who have received a first dose will receive a second dose or will they now have to wait since those doses have been pulled back and assigned to other populations? Why can’t they just be clear about what they are doing even for their own staff?

smittytheclown January 19, 2021 (8:14 am)

I’m not sure I would call 65 and older “opening the floodgates” but your point is well taken.They must feel they have enough on hand – and en route to make this call.Remember “Trust the science. Trust the data.” Now I guess it’s “Trust the logistics experts”?
AMD January 19, 2021 (10:11 am)

My understanding is that this doesn’t displace anyone who was already in the queue to get vaccinated, it’s just opening up opportunities for more people to get vaccinated faster without wasting time (or vaccine doses) waiting for the remaining people in that phase to be available for vaccination. There’s no effect on the second dose for those who have already gotten the first. The doses haven’t been “pulled back and assigned to other populations”. The health care workers I know who got vaccinated already had their second dose as of a week ago anyway. It’s a great thing to see people in our community getting vaccinated!
- Nichole January 19, 2021 (4:20 pm)
  
  All health care workers have not had their second dose. No where NEAR. I know many in long term care who don’t even have a date for first dose yet.
- CAM January 19, 2021 (11:02 pm)
  
  I want everyone vaccinated yesterday but that’s not reality and we don’t have enough supply for that. There are some people in this state who don’t have choices about whether or not to keep themselves safe and social distance and the state just deprioritized them. Maybe they are going to continue to get enough new shipments on a regular schedule to be able to vaccinate all of the healthcare workers on the schedule they have set out already but if they don’t and people are left waiting for doses how is that right? These individuals waited to get the vaccine until the state told them they were eligible based on the type of work they do. They then had to wait 4 weeks to get the second dose. Of the people I know personally, the earliest they will be eligible for the second dose is tomorrow. They can’t just show up early to speed the process up so the next phase can start. An agency having to return doses it doesn’t use within 7 days means what when they have 10 people scheduled for second doses this week but 200 next week? Are they getting sent more doses the next week? If so, why did they return the other doses? How does this make any sense?

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