Simplifying Washington State’s COVID-19 vaccine rollout will save lives

The state of Washington has received almost 700k doses of the COVID-19 vaccine, yet has only distributed 34.8% of doses in-hand. What’s going on with the other 65% of doses?

Could it be this convoluted distribution plan, which includes four phases, two tiers in the first phase, and 4 sub-tiers?

The number of tiers and sub-tiers hasn’t been announced yet for phases 2-4, but I can promise you it will be even worse. The state of Washington has committed to distributing vaccines based on race.

“Data guru Nate Silver of FiveThirtyEight said the vaccines should be handed out based on risk and not any other factor, and the top risk is age. “Age needs to be a higher priority than pre-existing conditions in vaccine rollout plans. Or a lot of people are going to die unnecessarily. It really is that simple.””

Distributing vaccines based on race or “social justice” metrics, and not based on risk due to COVID, will literally kill people.

It’s time to abandon this convoluted model and simplify the distribution. The US government has recommended opening up vaccination to the elderly, 65 and older. This would clarify priority and speed up delivery, all while saving lives. It’s time for Washington to adopt this approach – lives are at stake.