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This is COVID 19 Seattle

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I'm Dave Ross and I'm Aaron Granillo.

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While the next phase of the state's vaccine

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rollout is starting sooner than we thought,

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an accelerated timeline from moving

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to even our next

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grouping, the Phase one B,

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which we expect to do in

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the next coming days.

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That's state health Secretary Dr Umer

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Shaw. He did not give a specific date

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for moving into phase one B. It includes

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people 70 years and older and

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people 50 years and older in multigenerational

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households. The Health Department announced this new

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timeline a day after the C. D. C

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recommended vaccine access to people

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65 years and older

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and also those with underlying conditions.

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Dr. Shaw says the policy change

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caught him off guard. He

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even criticized this new guidance,

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By making pronouncements were simply

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having people get into even longer

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lines, which only adds

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to the frustration and consternation of everyone

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and doesn't help us get vaccines

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administered. So while all of us

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want more vaccines into

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communities and the arms of people,

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we have to have consistent

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and enhance supply those vaccines

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from our federal partners.

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As for the supply, the state has received

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about 625,000

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doses. More than 200,000

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have been used so far, which means only about

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a third of the supply has been administered.

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So I know this is a massive

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public health undertaking day. But it seems

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for now the state is in some ways

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bungling the rollout. It'd have months

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to prepare for this. Yet the

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health department says about 70%

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of the vaccine is still on the shelves.

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Doesn't the health department deserve some blame for

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that? Well, I don't know about blame I'm

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usually not interested in dishing out blame. But I've

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come to the conclusion that you need to just

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offer the vaccine to people who want

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it and see what happens. I think we're

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getting a sense now of what the demand is,

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and and to me, the main logistics

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of it are with the Pfizer vaccine. You

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can't saw it too soon. So

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you have to have at least some sense of who is

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going to show up. And I'm I'm hearing

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today that around the country states

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are taking reservations, they're sending up setting

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up mass vaccination sites and

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doing a pretty, uh, risk business.

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So once you know, exactly what

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your supply will be. It seems to be the best thing to

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do is just get it out the door as quickly as possible. Yeah,

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Those vaccine sites are also being

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set up here in, uh, in King County in Seattle.

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We know are sitting up a few of those, even the I

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heard the Seattle Fire Department is even rolling out. A couple

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of mobilization teams today hopes

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to vaccinate about 1000 people adult

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care living facilities by

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the end of this month. So that's all good news. And

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by the way, Dr Omer Shaw at the health Department,

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he did acknowledge the

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state is a little bit slow in

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the rollout.

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Look, we're going as fast as we can,

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but we need to do better, and we are

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doing better, and we're going to do even

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better. However, we also

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want to do it well , we do not

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do it well, we're going to have a system

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that is not going to respond well,

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and then all of us are gonna be having discussions

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in a few weeks about, why did we

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open up too quickly? Or why did we do

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some of these things that really made a more chaotic

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system in place, and

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we do not want to see that either. So it's trying

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to achieve a balance, and that's

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what we're working to. Strike is the balance.

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Balance and patience

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is what I'm also hearing from from the doctor

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at the Health Department. By the way, one more note

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here, the federal government did announce

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that it would no longer reserve booster

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doses of the vaccine. Instead, it

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says it will pump all of its

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available supply out

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to states, so we'll

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have a lot more supply coming. It sounds

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like here in the coming days. Also

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in vaccine news, the states teachers

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Union wants to move educators

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up the line to receive the vaccine.

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Washington Education Association

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President Larry Delaney says

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all teachers working in person with

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students should be prioritized

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regardless of age. We're not advocating

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for mandatory vaccination of

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all public school employees by

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any means, but simply that they have

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access to the vaccine if necessary.

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And the state's current plan is to vaccinate

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teachers sometime next month. But only

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, if they're at least 50 years old,

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all others would not qualify

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until April. So now we have the

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Education Association, joining with his

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bipartisan group of lawmakers. And they're

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both urging the governor and the Health

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Department to revise the recent guidance

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so that all school employees

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who want to get a vaccine can get one

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in February, no matter how young or

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how old they are. Well, that's essential

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to opening up schools, opening up schools, essentially

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reopening businesses because people need

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their Children to be somewhere and

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again, it gets back to this idea of getting as much

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vaccine out as quickly as possible. I'm a little surprised

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that it's not in every single

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drug store and and doctors office

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at this point, so

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that's that's what I'm looking for is for,

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actually, I had last time went in for an

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exam. I said, When I get the vaccine said, Well,

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we'll call you when it's in and

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I think that's what they need to do Call us when it's in

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and most of us will be down there. I

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heard an analysis from The Seattle

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Times that something like 60%

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of the states K through 12 staff

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is under 50.

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So only 40% of

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teachers around the state and staff around

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the state would be vaccinated next

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month. The rest wouldn't be vaccinated until

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April. And if the Education association

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is overall

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in agreement that it wants to be vaccinating

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all teachers, we need to get

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that done. We cannot wait until April

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to get all kids back to school, right?

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But it sounds like as each group

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lobbies to be first in line, are

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we gonna have ever changing regulations?

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It's getting confusing. I think the idea

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is, if you're a living, breathing

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person, who

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is what is it over 18? Because that's what it's

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been tested for. Then you show

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up and you get your, we do this with the flu

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every year. I

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don't know why it's it should be different. We urge

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as many people as possible to get the flu

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shot, and most do

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some don't and the

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demand doesn't seem to be overwhelming. So I'm

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not sure why we can't just do

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that here.

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As we talked about the vaccine, there is

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also concerned that cases

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are growing here. In our state,

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the coronavirus is spreading more rapidly

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and the new trouble spot is

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Whatcom county. The rates that we're seeing

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are unlike anything we've ever

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experienced in the past. And unlike

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the surge we saw following the Thanksgiving

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holiday and unlike anything

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we're seeing anywhere else in the state, that's

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county health director Erika Lautenbach. She

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says. 80% of the cases

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they can trace come from social

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gatherings is family and friends

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that are spreading it to each other, not strangers

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in workplaces, not at the grocery store,

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not retail stores or

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other places. It is in people's homes

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with people they know and love. Lautenbach expects

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this month's COVID cases to be triple

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that of December, which had been the

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county's worst month ever. December

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saw nearly 1100 cases, and Whatcom

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County is already nearing 1000 cases

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in the first half of January. My fear

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is that it will get worse before it gets

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better, and to put this into perspective,

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Lautenbach says that if you

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have 50 people or more at

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you're gathering, you have about a 50%

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chance of contracting the

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virus. I don't like those odds. No,

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that is that is terrifying, uh,

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in our episode. By the way before Thanksgiving,

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you might remember we talked with Dr Steven

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Anderson from Multicare Auburn

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medical center, and he warned

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us about stranger bias.

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That's the idea that I won't,

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I won't get this from my family. I won't

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get it from my inner circle. I'm going

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to get it from a stranger. That's

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just not true.

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And it sounds like Whatcom County

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is proving that that is not true

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again. 80% of all the cases

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they're tracing are just from small

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gatherings inside home. So

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I mean social gatherings and, like parties,

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inviting your friends over things of that nature

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so well, that's when you spend the most time indoors

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with people. Right is in those gatherings with with

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friends, they could go on for hours. Which tells me

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that we may have to rethink this idea

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that gyms and restaurants are

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what the problem is, right. I I

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wholeheartedly agree with you, Dave. Um,

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it's so difficult that that whole conversation

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about gyms and restaurants

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having to reopen because

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again like the cases,

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are still spreading like we're

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seeing in Whatcom County. And yet restaurants

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aren't open there, right? So I mean,

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you're hearing from restaurant owners saying

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give us a chance at least

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to try to reopen.

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We will enforce the mask mandates

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we will follow, by the way, the C D. C.

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Guidelines which do have advice

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to safely open restaurants.

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And I think we've gotten to the point where people are used

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to this. We're not gonna have the same kind of pushback

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about masks that we had initially.

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And I mean based on what

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I'm I'm hearing in this report. Your

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you if you're gonna have a gathering, you'd be safer

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at a restaurant that's enforcing rules. Then you would

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have a family gathering with their no rules. I

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totally agree with you. Um,

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okay, so let's just before we wrap

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up this episode, I do want to get your thoughts on

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what you're doing these days

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to keep your spirits up, you

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know, socialize appropriately

9:44

at a distance because both of us, we

9:46

canceled our holiday plans, so

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we didn't really do. We haven't been doing much these

9:50

last couple months. Well, basically, daily

9:53

zoom calls with the grandchild

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across the country. We're not daily, but several times

9:58

a week. Anyway, uh, she is very good. Now.

10:00

She my daughter just gives

10:02

her the phone and she gives me a

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guided tour of the apartment and her toys,

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and it's absolutely adorable.

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Uh, the other grandchild is part

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of our pod, so we can visit them

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in person and, um, that's

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gone pretty well. And the other thing I'm doing, I'm I'm

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going back to computer programming

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and re teaching myself

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Python. I'm trying to program ah,

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card game, Um, that

10:27

I can always win there.

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Can other people always win? Or

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is it just tailored? No, it's just me. I'm

10:34

collecting all the data so that if I ever get

10:36

go professional at playing solitaire,

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I will win every time. Good luck Dave. Tune

10:43

in next Thursday as we discuss more of

10:45

the latest coronavirus news. You can subscribe

10:47

to this podcast and also find our

10:49

news coverage on my Northwest.com or

10:52

listen live in 97.3 FM.