SPOKANE, Wash- Kaiser Permanente, and the Washington State Superintendent of Public Instruction are calling it an ambitious plan to vaccinate teachers.
State Superintendent Chris Rekdal says they’re preparing to launch in about a month, but five or six weeks might be more realistic.
While the whole goal is to speed up this process for people working in schools he says there’s still an understanding the vaccine won’t instantly bring things back to normal.
State Senator Brad Hawkins, a ranking Republican member on the Education Committee and a former school board member has been pushing for this for weeks.
“I commend superintendent Reykdal for his planning efforts and for bringing in partners with expertise – which is the smart thing to do – but I still believe Governor Inslee and DOH should allocate vaccines to regions proportional to population and allow local health providers and officials to coordinate their own distribution.”
About one and a half million people statewide are eligible for the vaccine and about half of them still need to get their first shot before this effort to vaccinate teachers and school staff members can start.
