SEATTLE — It’s an open secret: Some people in Washington state are jumping the line and getting COVID-19 vaccines before their turn.
The state’s rules on who is eligible to get a COVID-19 vaccine are strict, but it seems the protocols for enforcing them are not.
“We are increasingly hearing from residents who are angered that people who are not eligible for the vaccination, according to the state’s eligibility plan, are still receiving vaccinations,” said Seattle City Councilmember Lisa Herbold.
Herbold brought this to the attention of public health officials at Tuesday’s Public Safety and Human Services Committee meeting.
“I know somebody personally who has a health care license but isn’t a healthcare worker, and who has gotten their first and second vaccine and is under 50,” she said.
Patty Hayes, the director of Seattle-King County Public Health, told the committee that Washington state’s eligibility verification is based on honesty.
“It is honor system when people go onto PhaseFinder,” she said.
The state verifies eligibility using a questionnaire on PhaseFinder, relying on people to be truthful while answering questions.
When KING 5 visited the Department of Health’s (DOH) mass vaccination site in Wenatchee, we asked what steps are in place to ensure eligibility.
“For folks that have any kind of hiccups with IT or some just weirdness, as it happens, we do have the ability to pull them aside and kind of work with them about their appointment and their eligibility right here,” said Cory Portner, DOH Wenatchee mass vaccination site lead.
The state is walking a fine line in enforcing eligibility without creating roadblocks, according to the Washington State Hospital Association (WSHA).
“For some of these underserved populations, they have a reasonable fear of authorities, and they might have documentation with immigration issues, and we don’t want them to be deterred from getting vaccinated," said Beth Zborowski, with WSHA. "They may have other reasons that they are just concerned historically about providing information to the state or to healthcare organizations, and we really want to make sure that people feel comfortable getting the vaccine.”
“I’m hoping that the problem is really a small one, and I think it’s a small price to pay for not putting barriers in front of people who really are eligible at this point to getting the vaccine,” said Zborowski.
The WSHA encourages vaccine providers to ask questions about eligibility, but in a tactful way.
“It really is a partnership between the community, as well as all the vaccine locations, just asking those questions and verifying that people are doing what they supposed to be doing,” said Zborowski. “A lot of these clinics are staffed with volunteers doing the data entry, doing actual immunization, and to put them in the position of saying, ‘Prove to me that this is your birthdate,' or that 'You are indeed a frontline healthcare worker.’"
Many of the people at the vaccine clinics will have to rely on trust, she said.
"We’ve really got to have some trust in people, too," said Zborowski. "I think that puts clinic volunteers in a really awkward position to be kind of doing this enforcement. I think when you take an approach of having an honor system and saying, you know, we are going to trust that people are going to do the right thing, there are going to be people who aren’t going to do the right thing.”