As of Dec. 17, data from The New York Times suggests only four states are doing better than Washington in flattening the coronavirus curve – Hawaii, Maine, Vermont and Oregon. Every other state in the country had more than 40 new daily cases per 100,000 people over the last seven days.
But every state will benefit from the vaccine rollout, which began in earnest on Thursday in Washington.
If the door cracked open on Tuesday when UW Medicine vaccinated 13 frontline health care workers, the floodgates opened on Thursday, with hundreds of frontline workers getting their first dose of Pfizer's COVID-19 vaccine, including Dr. Nandita Mani, an infectious disease doctor at UW Medicine.
Mani said she is humbled by the speed of the development of the vaccine.
"I think that the collaboration and the amount of progress we've made – it's just phenomenal, and it's been at a pace that we've never seen before," Mani said.
About 60,000 high-risk frontline workers in Washington are getting the shot over the next few days. UW Medicine alone vaccinated about 200 employees on Thursday and expects to inoculate 400 more employees Friday.
The very first person to get the vaccine in Washington state on Tuesday was Amy Fry, a COVID ICU nurse at Harborview Medical Center, who said she was expecting to experience more side effects than she did.
"I tend to have a pretty (significant) reaction to the flu shot; I tend to get a little feverish and just exhausted,” Fry said. “And this (COVID-19 vaccine) was way less than that. I felt a little groggy the day that I received the vaccine. And then yesterday, the day after, my arm was a little bit sore. But that's been the extent of it – very, very mild side effects."
The news Thursday that Washington is getting its vaccine allotment slashed by 40% next week would be a major setback. But Fry says no matter what – we all need to prepare for a long journey back to normal.
"If people had the expectation that they were going to be vaccinated much sooner, it is disappointing,” Fry said. “But I just say, keep socially distancing, stay safe, stay healthy. And then when it's your turn, just wait your turn and get your vaccine."