PORT TOWNSEND — The mass COVID-19 vaccination campaign has begun on the North Olympic Peninsula.
By early Thursday afternoon, about 90 people had received the Pfizer vaccine — given emergency approval by the FDA last Friday — at Jefferson Healthcare’s drive-up site, coordinator Lori Banks said as she awaited the next car.
With those inoculations plus 35 done Wednesday, Jefferson Healthcare hospital entered Phase 1A, aka the “jumpstart phase,” of the national effort to immunize millions of frontline health care workers and first responders.
The hospital received a shipment of 975 doses at the beginning of this week and hopes to administer them all by Dec. 24, spokesperson Amy Yaley said.
Olympic Medical Center in Port Angeles plans to inoculate some staffers today and start a clinic next week.
Early in the morning Thursday, a woman paid a visit to Port Townsend’s drive-up site, in the parking lot behind the Sheridan Clinic at 10th and Sheridan streets. She came not to get a shot, but to drop off a sign.
“Thank you!” it read, and the woman said it, too.
The 1A recipients — nurses, doctors, phlebotomists and others at high risk of exposure to the coronavirus — pulled in with a variety of emotions, said Banks: grateful, nervous, a little choked up.
“A lot of selfies,” nurse Jess Cigalotti added with a smile.
Seriously, Banks said: “It’s rewarding to be able to do this.”
No adverse reactions to the vaccine have been reported, Yaley said Thursday afternoon, adding she has received a variety of responses to the mass email Jefferson Healthcare sent this week.
“Vaccinating as many community members in as timely a manner as possible is our absolute priority, and we are committed to ensuring equitable distribution,” reads the letter signed by Jefferson Healthcare doctors Joe Mattern, Steven Butterfield and Tracie Harris and by Jefferson County Health Officer Dr. Tom Locke.
Harris, an internist and hospitalist who works with COVID patients, was the first on the North Olympic Peninsula to receive the vaccine; she was followed by Jefferson Healthcare nurse and night supervisor Tom Heuberger.
And Yaley is receiving plentiful email — from people wondering when they can be immunized and from those opposed to the vaccine.
One thing she’s learned during the pandemic, she said, is that people’s risk tolerance varies — a lot.
And while many people see the vaccine as a bright light of hope, making it available to the community and beyond “will be a gradual process,” the doctors’ letter notes.
Multiple phases will unfold, with essential workers, long-term care facilities, teachers, childcare providers, homeless shelters, group homes, prisons and jails in the long and winding queue.
“The guidelines are being established as we go,” Yaley said.
She’s certain about one thing: There will not be a cost for the vaccine.
“No barriers,” she said, adding Jefferson Healthcare continues to develop its public information platforms.
Updates about who can be vaccinated when will be posted at jeffersonhealthcare.org; emails, sent to everyone who has visited a Jefferson Healthcare clinic or site in the past two years, will also deliver details, as will newspaper articles and advertisements.
“It’s not going to be subtle,” Yaley said.
The hospital itself has met this moment in history by turning its conference room into an incident command center, reassigning medical workers, banning most visitors and uploading abundant information onto its website’s COVID pages.
Masking, social distancing, hand hygiene and household-only gatherings are as critical as ever, hospital officials emphasize.
With the advent of the delicate vaccine, a complex system for safe storage and waste prevention had to be created, said Jake Davidson, executive director of the hospital’s medical group.
“There is such a uniqueness to this immunization,” he said: “After it comes out of the freezer, we have five days to reconstitute it. Once we reconstitute it, we have six hours. Anything we’re mixing right now has to be used up.
“It’s exciting,” Davidson said, “and nerve-wracking.”
Locke, noting a vaccination effort of this scale has never been attempted before, saluted Jefferson Healthcare’s team.
“This has been a challenging undertaking,” he said, making an understatement.
“They took care of it and ran with it.”
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Jefferson County senior reporter Diane Urbani de la Paz can be reached at 360-417-3509 or durbanidelapaz@peninsuladailynews.com.
Jefferson County reporter Zach Jablonski contributed to this story.
