WASHINGTON — Dr. Alan Melnick is the Clark County public health director and the health officer for Cowlitz, Skamania, Pacific and Wahkiakum Counties. Melnick is all for doing the fairest and efficient job of vaccinating against COVID-19 as possible.
But he doesn't think that's what's happening in Southwest Washington right now, especially with such a limited supply of vaccine.
For instance, this week the state is sending 4,700 doses to Clark County. Of those, 4,000 will go to the state-run mass vaccination site at the county fairgrounds.
That leaves just 700 doses to go to all other providers, like PeaceHealth, the Vancouver Clinic, Sea Mar Community Health Clinic, and more.
“And I know collectively they can administer more than a couple thousand vaccines per day, they're geared up to do that," said Melnick. "The other thing I point out is, that given the limited amount of vaccine supply we have, our health care providers are actually more geographically dispersed around the counties."
The public health officer knows the other big problem is the sign-up system. It has been a huge frustration for thousands of people trying to get an appointment through the state-run Safeway sign-up, getting on Clark County's waiting list, and calling providers directly.
Carol Goodrich of Battle Ground was finally able to book appointments with the Vancouver Clinic for later this month. But Goodrich doesn't trust they will have the vaccine to make it happen, so she's tried to find other options.
“I've spent a week on the computer as much as I possibly can and when I think that something is going to work it just doesn't happen,” said 78-year-old Goodrich.
Melnick said Clark Public Health wanted one sign up system all along.
But the state wanted to do its own thing.
“We had hoped we could have had just one portal where we could have sent people anywhere: state site, providers, we would have been able to track it that way.”
The county can track the number on its waiting list; it's currently 30,000 people. It was 23,000 last week. The size of the list is not surprising when you consider there are 89,000 people in the age group of 65 and older alone who are eligible for the vaccine in Clark County.
Here is the current information on how to sign up for vaccinations in Clark County:
- The state has a website listing some pharmacies that have vaccine and may have appointments
- The state-operated vaccination site at the Clark County Fairgrounds
- Clark County Public Health also has a web form people can fill out and it can refer them to a local health care facility with vaccine. It does have a lot of people on the list and there are not a lot of appointments available, so it may take several weeks before you hear from a facility to schedule an appointment