Mayor Pete pic.twitter.com/rPpgAxGcMt

— David Corn (@DavidCornDC) January 20, 2021

After an inspirational successful first wave for health workers and some of its most vulnerable citizens in care facilities across the state, Washington’s first efforts to reach the general public with COVID-19 vaccinations is off to a rough and demoralizing start — part of a frustrating reality across the nation.

Gov. Jay Inslee is planning to address the efforts Tuesday afternoon and is sticking to his message that the state is making progress toward its vaccination goals.

Meanwhile, more health officials are advising people consider making a big change to their face covering strategy — more people are double masking as virulent new strains of the virus emerge.

At Seattle University where the city’s first community clinic opened to provide the vaccine to members of the general public 65 and older or qualifying for the first tier of the state’s rollout, the message to those waiting for their first shot is a frustrating reminder that we have a long way to go to put an end to the pandemic.

“Due to a change in the state’s allocation strategy toward starting up mass vaccination clinics in other areas, our community clinic is currently on an operational pause, awaiting more vaccine supply; this takes effect Friday, Jan. 29,” the message posted by Swedish about its Seattle U clinic reads.

The Swedish statement says its looks forward to “restarting our operations should we receive enough vaccine to continue serving the community.”

“We are all in this together, and we are grateful for the public and private partnerships that have made it possible for Swedish to be a part of this vaccination effort,” it concludes.

Swedish says patients who received a first shot will still be scheduled to receive their second.

But right now, there is not vaccine enough to go around.

Across the country, state health departments including Washington are hampered by delays and uncertainty in the federal rollout of the vaccines as the process has scaled. Washington state officials have complained that they do not receive accurate projections for vaccine supply which has limited state and local providers’ ability to plan for clinics and appointments.

But there is hope of a nationwide acceleration with the National Guard and FEMA deploying across the country to establish clinics and the Defense Production Act invoked to “maximize the manufacture of vaccine and vaccine supplies for the country.”

Washington officials say that despite the current logjam of demand far outpacing available vaccine, they expect to nearly double the current rate of vaccination in the state to around 45,000 a day. The state’s current seven-day rolling average was 23,960 doses administered, the Inslee administration said Monday.

Officials say Washington has now passed 500,000 vaccine doses administered — 57.4% of the doses provided to the state so far by the federal government.

The state continues to direct people to findyourphasewa.org to determine eligibility and get information on signing up for clinics. But many eligible people living outside of care facilities and not employed by medical facilities are on the hunt on their own for vaccination appointments, piecing together information from lists of clinics, social media, and word of mouth. Some — before this week’s pause –were successful. Others ended up with appointments weeks from now. Most found “no appointments available” messages.

You can see a list of all approved vaccine providers by county here.

We hear you, #WA. We know you're waiting anxiously! pic.twitter.com/g5YU5LWKkL

— Washington State Department of Health (@WADeptHealth) January 26, 2021

State officials have expressed modest expectations for the rollout saying most people would not receive their first COVID-19 vaccination until May at the earliest, according to guidance from the Washington State Department of Health. CHS reported here on the early phases of vaccinations in Washington focused on frontline health workers and at-risk populations like people living in care facilities.

Gov. Inslee and wife Trudi Inslee, meanwhile, received their first shots on Friday.

Reopening and double masking
Meanwhile, the state’s reopening plan could begin to see regions getting closer to loosened restriction as the number of new cases has dropped.

In King County, the daily average is down to around 293 new cases per day — about half of the heights seen in November and December. Every day, around four to five people sickened in that time are dying from COVID-19 complications.

Officials are now concerned that a faster spreading new strain of the virus could reverse that progress.

In addition to practicing social distancing and avoiding gatherings, more people are taking the lead of President Joe Biden and other national leaders seen during last week’s Inauguration and double masking when in higher risk situations.

Double masking.#AFPGraphics compares different ways of wearing masks to maximise protection against the coronavirus pic.twitter.com/yB4meh73MR

— AFP News Agency (@AFP) January 22, 2021

The practice — basically wearing the cloth masks you are using now over a disposable medical mask — has been common with medical professionals (and presidential candidates) and can help give the wearer a better fit with fewer gaps. The New York Times reported some tips and buying options here. Officials are encouraging the use of masks that are not N95 rated so that they remain available to health workers.

Doubling up on your mask might feel like the ultimate indignity in a year many hoped would put the pandemic behind us. But along with efforts to put the rocky start to the vaccination rollout behind us, it might be the best way to help those hopes come true.

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