OSPI, Kaiser Permanente prep to vaccinate Washington state teachers in new plan
The Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction and medical care provider Kaiser Permanente are launching an effort to offer COVID-19 vaccines to teachers across Washington state.
The plan will include approximately 14 to 20 vaccination locations along the I-5 corridor and in Spokane.
The plan would not allow school staff to jump ahead in the vaccination queue.
Rather, the intent is to have an efficient process so school staff are not scrambling to find access to a vaccination, said state Superintendent Chris Reykdal in a media briefing on Friday.
“What we wanted to do was make clear to educators we’re working hard to expedite a process that in the next four to six weeks, when we get the green light, we are going to be ready,” Reykdal said.
“This provides all schools a great option, a guaranteed option to use Kaiser Permanente if they need to be vaccinated — it is not exclusive,” said Kaiser Permanente president Susan Mullaney. “So if districts have different plans, those will remain as options. People with individual providers who they might want to get vaccinated by, that’s still an option for them.”
There is no payment from the state to Kaiser Permanente for the plan. School staff who are Kaiser Permanente members can access the service without charge, and non-members can bill their insurance companies or the federal government to get reimbursed.
Reykdal said the details are being determined as to the exact sites, but they will primarily be at Kaiser Permanente facilities. Reykdal said there might be some schools that are asked to host a school site.
When asked why the state doesn’t plan to administer vaccines at each school, Reykdal said there are “significant logistical challenges” in getting schools approved to store and administer vaccines.
“It isn’t very practical to go school to school,” he said.
Under the state’s vaccination plan, all people over the age of 65 are currently eligible to get a COVID-19 vaccine. Teachers and school staff over the age of 50 are eligible in Phase 1B Tier 2, and all other teachers are eligible at Tier 4. The state won’t move to Phase 1B Tier 2 until at least 50 percent of Tier 1 is vaccinated.
Changes to the plan earlier this month created flexibility for providers administering the vaccine that would allow all staff at school to receive the vaccine at the same time if a school elects to do so.
Gov. Jay Inslee said in a news conference Tuesday that he was not considering bumping up school teachers and staff in line for the vaccine.
“Every teacher that is vaccinated today means one less 80, 90, 100, 70, 65-year-old person gets the vaccine, and we don’t have enough vaccines for those folks,” Inslee said.
The state is getting approximately 116,000 doses of the vaccination a week, Inslee said, and there are 1.7 million people in the 65 and over category, who are most at-risk of dying of COVID-19.
“If you (vaccinate) other folks it means one of the older people who might be 100 years of age can’t get vaccinated,” he said. “And I just do not believe 25-year-old teachers think they should get in line ahead of their 80-year-old grandparents.”
Inslee added he believes that schools can be opened safely.
In Oregon, Gov. Kate Brown put K-12 teachers ahead of people 65-and-over in line for the vaccine.
This story was originally published January 29, 2021 at 12:10 PM.
