By Pepper Fisher
PORT ANGELES – At Friday morning’s Covid briefing, Health Officer Dr. Allison Berry Unthank said she expects the FDA’s approval of the Pfizer vaccine to happen today, which would trigger a shipment of a little under 1000 doses to Clallam County next week.
All of those doses will be administered to health care workers, though it will not be enough to cover all of them. Regular shipments of the vaccine are expected in the following weeks, enough to get everyone their second doses and to keep moving through the tiers of distribution based on likelihood of becoming infected and likelihood of dying should you become infected with the virus.
Dr. Unthank says the priority list has been established by expert panels and local health officials can’t veer from those protocols.
“I have certainly received that our office has received requests from folks who want to know where they are in that distribution system, and if they can move up. I’ve also heard of folks who are contacting your doctors trying to get on a list. I think it’s important to know that there is no such list. We are going to be vaccinating folks based on risk of exposure first, and those vaccinations will come primarily through your primary care provider’s office.”
Dr. Unthank says you do not need to contact you doctor’s office to get the vaccination. They know where you will be in the distribution system.
It’s interesting to note that those 611 people in our community who have already had the virus will still be encouraged to get the vaccine, and will be offered it in their otherwise normal place on the tier.
Dr. Unthank says the goal is to vaccinate 70-75% of the community in order to wipe out the virus, and she doesn’t expect that to occur until possibly early summer.