Lummi Nation, St. Joseph hospital to get first doses of COVID-19 vaccine in Whatcom
PeaceHealth and the Lummi Public Health Department are getting the first doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine in Whatcom County, with both receiving them this week.
The Lummi Public Health Department received 300 doses of the vaccine to protect against COVID-19 on Tuesday, Dec. 15.
PeaceHealth expected to get 975 doses at its Bellingham hospital on Thursday, Dec. 17.
In a news release, Lummi officials said they were getting the first distribution of the vaccine.
“The Center for Disease Control recognizes the rights of tribal nations to determine the population served and how vaccines are distributed. Following discussion with the Lummi Health Commission, the Lummi Public Health Department will begin vaccinating medical and dental staff; residents of Little Bear Creek, a retirement and assisted living facility; and members of the Lummi Police Department beginning this week,” the Lummi Nation said.
“This is welcome news in a really tough year,” said Lawrence Solomon, chairman of Lummi Nation, in the release. “We are blessed to be able to protect some of our most vulnerable, frontline workers against the virus.”
PeaceHealth said medical workers at its St. Joseph hospital will be the first to receive the vaccine in the county and among the first in Washington state.
“In alignment with guidance from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the state Department of Health, PeaceHealth is prioritizing the first doses of vaccines for healthcare workers who provide hands-on care to confirmed COVID-19 positive patients, as well as other higher-risk groups of caregivers providing face-to-face patient care,” Dr. Sudhakar Karlapudi, chief medical officer for PeaceHealth Northwest, said to The Bellingham Herald on Monday, Dec. 14.
“We will begin vaccinating groups of caregivers within PeaceHealth’s hospital and clinic facilities and move to the next prioritized groups depending on supply levels,” Karlapudi said.
The vaccine arrived in Washington on Monday, Dec. 14, and the state is expected to get 62,400 doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine — the first out of the gate — this week. The first distribution is going to 17 sites across 13 counties, the state Department of Health said in a news release.
PeaceHealth said the vaccine doses it’s receiving are not in the first distribution, but in the second.
The state expects to receive a total of 222,000 doses of the Pfizer vaccine by the end of December, with regular weekly shipments likely beginning in January.
The vaccine is given in two doses, 21 days apart.
Clinical trial data show the vaccine is 95% effective at preventing COVID-19 infection, starting seven days after the second dose, the state health department said in a release.
Those getting the vaccine aren’t expected to be fully protected until one to two weeks after they get the second dose.
State health officials said the clinical trials “revealed no major unanticipated adverse events.”
The first doses of the vaccine will go to people in phase 1a, the state said, which is made up of high-risk workers in health care settings, high-risk first responders, and patients and staff of long-term care facilities.
About 500,000 people in Washington will be eligible for the vaccine in phase 1a, the state health department said.
Public health officials here said they were still trying to determine how many people in Whatcom County were eligible to get the vaccine in phase 1a.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration issued an emergency use authorization for the vaccine on Friday, Dec. 12, for use in people age 16 and older.
The Scientific Safety Review Workgroup, which includes Washington, Oregon, Nevada, Colorado and California, has voted unanimously to recommend the vaccine for immediate use.
A second pharmaceutical company, Moderna, has submitted an emergency use authorization application, which will be reviewed Dec. 17. If that is granted and the Moderna vaccine is approved by the Scientific Safety Review Workgroup, the state health department said, Washington should get about 183,800 doses of that vaccine by the end of December.
The Moderna vaccine also requires two doses, 28 days apart.
“We believe that if everything goes according to plan, we’ll have most people in Washington vaccinated by mid-summer,” said Michele Roberts, one of the leaders of the state Department of Health COVID-19 vaccine planning group, in a news release. “The rapid development of these vaccines, with such a high rate of efficacy, is a historic achievement, and will help us defeat COVID-19.”
Public health officials said they will share plans for vaccine allocation and prioritization guides for future phases in the coming weeks.
‘Tunnel’s still very long’
COVID-19 vaccine distribution was among the topics discussed Monday when U.S. Rep. Rick Larsen, D-Everett, visited the mobile COVID-19 testing site at the Lynden fairgrounds on Monday.
“They’re a light at the end of the tunnel but the tunnel’s still very long,” Larsen said of what he tells constituents about vaccines.
Whatcom Unified Command and the Whatcom Health Department run the drive-thru site, which requires people to reserve a spot but doesn’t require them to first get a doctor’s order. In addition to health department officials, County Executive Satpal Sidhu and Lynden Mayor Scott Korthuis also were at the site with Larsen.
Larsen said he has told constituents that he would get the vaccine now if he could, but he didn’t want to cut in line.
He tells those who ask him if they should get the vaccine to listen to scientists.
“Don’t listen to the president. Don’t listen to the president-elect. Don’t listen to me. Listen to those people with lots of letters behind their names. That’s who you need to listen to,” Larsen said.
‘Long haul’
In addition to the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines, there are four other vaccines in the pipeline, Erika Lautenbach, director of the Whatcom County Health Department, told the Bellingham City Council on Monday night, Dec. 14.
Unlike the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines, they require one dose, which would make them easier to administer, and they don’t require super cold temperature for storage, she said.
“That is good news on the horizon,” Lautenbach said of the vaccines.
Still, Lautenbach continued to urge people to avoid gathering with others they don’t live with during the upcoming holidays as COVID cases continue to surge in Washington state and Whatcom County.
Vaccines are coming but it will still be “many, many months” before life returns to a more normal state given how long it will take for them to be administered, she said.
For many, the wait will be longer.
“It’s going to be a long haul for us who are healthy and don’t have other risk factors,” Lautenbach said during the City Council meeting.
Moving forward, the Whatcom County Health Department will help with efforts to let different groups of people know when they can get vaccinated.
It’s also planning to post a map of the county with all of the different sites where people can get the COVID-19 vaccine.
“We’ll update that as more and more providers become certified to distribute and administer the vaccine,” Lautenbach told The Bellingham Herald on Monday.
She said that the county health department also wanted to make sure the vaccine would be available to the homeless, farmworkers and other marginalized communities that may not have access to health care or a provider.
So far, 19 organizations in Whatcom County, including health care providers and pharmacies, are seeking the OK or have been certified to order and administer the vaccine. That represents 47 locations countywide, according to the county health department.
The numbers in Whatcom County don’t include Walgreens, which has the federal contract to provide the vaccine to long-term care facilities, Lautenbach said.
This story was originally published December 14, 2020 at 5:31 PM.
