After vaccinating all phase 1B tier 1 eligible people who wanted the vaccine, Whitman County was ready to move on to the next group, teachers. But that plan was stopped in its tracks after a call from the governor’s office. This is an excerpt of an email from the Whitman County department of health.
“Unfortunately I have some bad news to share with you all. Late last night Dr. Bowman and I were pulled into a conference call with the governor’s office regarding our plans to vaccinate teachers and staff in our clinics this week and weekend. On that meeting they made it very clear that if we were to proceed with that plan, we would be jeopardizing our current doses and any future allocations. After speaking with Dr. Bowman and our internal team, we feel like it would be foolish to proceed with the plan to vaccinate teachers and staff. Right now we are working on plans to re-allocate vaccine to neighboring counties. It does not look like we will be able to fill our weekend clinics due to not enough eligible people so we will be looking at re-structuring those as well to get the most out of our resources. Please let me know if you have questions or concerns. “
So instead of risking future doses, Whitman County started giving thousands of vaccines away.
At least 2,000 doses went to Spokane according to Whitman County’s health department. It is unclear what health care provider the doses went to, but according to Whitman County they were offered to SRHD but it did not have the ultra-cold freezer storage to take them.
Matt McLain, Rosalia Schools principal, says what the governor is demanding is unfair.
“Our county is being punished for being efficient, because they have done a great job at delivering the vaccine,” McLain said. “The question I have, is this a pandemic or is it not? If it’s a pandemic let’s treat it like a pandemic and get it in the arms and the hands of people that need it, period.”
McLain is not the only educator we spoke to who is frustrated and confused by the Governor’s decision.
“It has been really frustrating and demoralizing to our staff,” said Robert Maxwell, Pullman Schools Superintendent. “They were excited that, okay here, we are going to start getting the vaccine.”
We have reached out to Governor Inslee multiple times but he would not agree to an on-camera interview. The Governor’s office did provide us with a written response.
“That is a misguided characterization- Whitman County is not being punished for doing a good job. That is a provincial viewpoint that does not take the needs of the whole state. We need to look at the whole state, not just one county who have successfully vaccinated all currently prioritized people. Which is great, but many, many others who currently qualify in every part of the state have not received it yet.”
