It’s come out that three hospitals in the Seattle area have offered high money donors “special invitations” to get the Covid vaccine.
Yesterday, my wife and drove over 60 miles to attend a “walk-in vaccine” clinic. We arrived at 5:30AM, waited an hour in the rain and wind, to a number and finally got our shots at 10AM. We learned that the doses were all allocated at 8:30AM and an estimated 440 were turned away. That after trying for two weeks to get the vaccine.

How blatant was the “invitation”?

“ Dear Overlake major donors…” the email read. “We’re pleased to share that we have 500 new open appointments in the Overlake COVID-19 vaccine clinic, beginning this afternoon and tomorrow (Saturday, Jan. 23) and next week.”
The email gave the donors an access code to register for appointments “by invite” only. Last week, the public-facing Overlake registration site was fully booked through March.”

“WA DOH Condemns 'Invitation Only' Vaccination Events For VIPs
SEATTLE — Three hospitals across the Puget Sound have been caught hosting private "invitation only" vaccination clinics, allowing board members and other VIPs to skip the queue for the vaccine. Now, the Washington State Department of Health says those hospitals are going to stop immediately, or risk having their vaccine supply cut off entirely.

The DOH posted a statement on the issue Saturday reading in part:

"The Washington State Department of Health stands with Governor Inslee in being dismayed at reports of such egregiously inappropriate behavior regarding "invitation-only" vaccine clinics. We do not condone this behavior, and we have never allowed it.
Since COVID-19 vaccine planning began, equity has been the primary focus of the state's distribution effort, and to see such cavalier disregard for allocation strategy that prioritizes the most at-risk and disproportionately impacted populations is unacceptable.
Plainly said, this kind of practice is inequitable, wrong, and must stop immediately. Facilities or organizations found to engage in this practice risk not receiving additional shipments of vaccines."
The first hospital caught offering easier access to the vaccine for VIPs was Bellevue's Overlake Medical Center. Earlier this month, the hospital sent an email to roughly 4,000 people, welcoming them to attend an invite-only clinic. The list included more than 100 major donors. The news broke Tuesday to extreme backlash in Washington and across the country.

Since then, the Seattle Times has confirmed at least two more Puget Sound-area hospitals have hosted similarly exclusive clinics: Providence Regional Medical Center in Everett, who on Tuesday held a clinic exclusive to donors, board members and fundraising volunteers, and Kirkland's EvergreenHealth, which claimed to be testing their vaccine scheduling tool, but used that test to offer vaccine doses to board members.

Providence Regional Medical Center was not vaccinating the public at the time of their private clinic, and visitors to EvergreenHealth's website are currently greeted with a warning explaining that they are short on the vaccine and cannot schedule any further appointments.

Several state leaders have since spoken out to condemn the practice, including Gov. Jay Inslee — whose office also shut down online access to the Overlake clinic, according to the Times. Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan has gone one step further, calling on the DOH to reassess their entire vaccine distribution model to better prioritize those with the greatest needs.

“ We have an obligation to ensure that our fight against the pandemic does not exacerbate inequities and instead centers those most impacted in our access to treatment, our economic assistance, and now in access to life-saving vaccines," said Durkan. "Unfortunately, the recent stories of preferential treatment by providers for financial donors, coupled with the struggles of communities to vaccinate their most vulnerable members, show even more starkly that these systems are failing communities of color. This is eroding trust in government at a time when public confidence is crucial for the health and recovery of our communities. Corrective action must be taken now."

The DOH has not announced any major restructuring plans, but did note in their statement Saturday that, going forward, larger portions of vaccine shipments would be headed to places like pharmacies and community centers instead of hospitals:

"Furthermore, vaccine allocation was always going to expand beyond hospitals to allow more community access in ways that are culturally responsive and accessible.
It made sense that, in the early weeks of vaccination, the majority of vaccine went to hospitals because we needed to reach the most at-risk workers in health care settings and protect our healthcare infrastructure.
Now, we are spreading limited vaccine among many more sites where people can get vaccinated, including pharmacies, community health centers, local public health, and mass vaccination sites."

https://patch.com/washington/s...cination-events-vips
https://www.seattletimes.com/s...-concerns-of-equity/

...and it’s not just in Washington...

https://www.wdbj7.com/2021/01/...ors-get-covid-shots/

My wife & I got our shots that way. The hospital had unused doses from their staff supply that they released to the members of the hospital auxiliary and later asked them to share the secret website with community members. That's when we were contacted. We are certainly not "Big Donors" or any kind of donor, but my wife's playing golf with the wife of a retired crooked judge who is helping him rehab his soiled reputation certainly helped. (sidebar: The crooked judge was outed by newspapers all over the state about 20 years ago.)

I am seeing instances in my region where there is an excess of vaccines.

I think it would be nice to see the little happy faces of the privileged in the local town paper. Hope this is just the first vaccine and they have to wait in a very long line for the booster.

Nothing surprising other than they got caught. Standard MO for the elite left - abuse of power and position. More for me and none for thee. Judgement day will come.

quote:

Originally posted by ZSMICHAEL:
I think it would be nice to see the little happy faces of the privileged in the local town paper. Hope this is just the first vaccine and they have to wait in a very long line for the booster.

The second dose must be given within set period of time. “The Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine, the interval is 21 days between the first and second dose. And for the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine, the interval is 28 days between the first and second dose. “
While there is some flexibility, prolonging the second dose would waste the first dose and lead to the patient running the risk of Covid.

As for the “VIP hospitals” the word is “Now, the Washington State Department of Health says those hospitals are going to stop immediately, or risk having their vaccine supply cut off entirely.”

Maybe it's a first dose is free but the second dose will cost you $50,000 situation. The second dose contains the antidote.

“All animals are equal but some are more equal than others.”

quote:

Originally posted by lastmanstanding:
Maybe it's a first dose is free but the second dose will cost you $50,000 situation. The second dose contains the antidote.

I believe I read that book but can’t remember the name of it. Thought provoking.
Mike

Saw a news story that a wealthy couple from Vancouver chartered a plane, flew north to the Yukon, and received vaccines meant for indigenous people in a small village.

It did not end well for them.

Link

Thanks for the story. These guys stepped on a lot of toes. The Canadian government, the Gaming Industry and the Indigenous people were all involved. Not even good liars. From the pic it looks like a May December romance. I wonder how they plan to get the booster vaccine? I think they deserve the Sputnik 5, Putin says it is ok.

quote:

Originally posted by TMats:
Saw a news story that a wealthy couple from Vancouver chartered a plane, flew north to the Yukon, and received vaccines meant for indigenous people in a small village.

Link

I’m been to Beaver Creek. It’s remote. The danger was that these two idiots would come in infected with Covid or the flu.

quote:

Originally posted by TMats:
Saw a news story that a wealthy couple from Vancouver chartered a plane, flew north to the Yukon, and received vaccines meant for indigenous people in a small village.

It did not end well for them.

Link

They were fined $1,150 each, Yukon News reported.

Not exactly financially devastating, probably had it in his wallet...

Should have been required to fund a flight of the vaccine to remote camps out of his pocket, air costs, vaccine, etc.

There's no vaccine to be had unless you are a political official in Georgia.

quote:

Originally posted by Icabod:
The second dose must be given within set period of time. “The Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine, the interval is 21 days between the first and second dose. And for the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine, the interval is 28 days between the first and second dose. “
While there is some flexibility, prolonging the second dose would waste the first dose and lead to the patient running the risk of Covid.

Got my first shot at 11:38 yesterday, drove 45 minutes home and found an email with a "special invitation" to get the second shot. Turns out they were well organized and set things up to where you didn't have to worry about scheduling the second, just go in to their website and confirm the date.

I think it cost him his lucrative job....resigning four days after the incident.

quote:

Originally posted by HRK:

quote:

Originally posted by TMats:
Saw a news story that a wealthy couple from Vancouver chartered a plane, flew north to the Yukon, and received vaccines meant for indigenous people in a small village.

It did not end well for them.

Link

They were fined $1,150 each, Yukon News reported.

Not exactly financially devastating, probably had it in his wallet...

Should have been required to fund a flight of the vaccine to remote camps out of his pocket, air costs, vaccine, etc.