SEATTLE — Most people shouldn't expect to get the COVID-19 vaccine right away.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has a very specific vaccine priority list and at the top are healthcare personnel and people in long-term care facilities.
The second phase is essential workers like police, firefighters, transportation workers and teachers.
The third phase is high-risk adults and those over the age of 65.
These guidelines helped University of Washington Medicine decide how to rollout their first round of COVID-19 vaccines.
"Provide vaccines to all healthcare workers in that first phase, specifically healthcare workers that are patient-facing,” explained Dr. Shireesha Dhanireddy, Director of Harborview Infectious Diseases Clinic.
It’s going to be months before the general public has access to the vaccine.
Pfizer estimates June.
Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan said the city is working with the state Department of Health on a plan, but as of now, the information is limited.
"It's going to be enormously complicated. We don't even know how much of the vaccine we're getting when,” Durkan told KING 5.
The next question is about procuring and storing the vaccines, which require a specialized freezer.
"The freezers you need for one of the vaccines requires really low temperatures. They're sold out worldwide,” said Durkan.
UW has freezers prepped and ready to go at all UW medical hospitals.
"We're in a really good position to make sure that everyone who meets those criteria will be offered vaccine. And so the prioritization within these groups is really to help stagger, and to also maintain that surge capacity upfront,” Dhanireddy said.
UW Medicine said the next round of vaccines are expected in January or early February and they plan to get those out to people 65 and over with co-morbidities.
