My 76-year-old brother in South Carolina, my 69-year-old brother in New York and my 66-year-old sister in Clallam County have all been vaccinated. 

My 72-year-old brother who has a heart condition hasn’t been vaccinated because he lives in Jefferson County, which is only able to vaccinate people over 75 years old. As a result, who knows how many weeks it will take for my brother to be vaccinated.

I think this is because the state official that in charge of distributing vaccines is ignoring the fact that counties with high percentages of people of 65 need extra vaccines during Tier 1. 

For example, if a county has 35 percent of their population over 65 and you vaccinate 9 percent of the population, that still leaves 26 percent of people over 65 unvaccinated.

Meanwhile, if a county has 20 percent of their population over 65 years old and you vaccinate 9 percent, that leaves only 11 percent over age 65 unvaccinated compared to 27 percent in a place like Jefferson County.

The statewide goal of Tier 1 is to vaccinate everyone over 65 because they are most likely to die. It’s unfair to Jefferson County senior citizens for the state of Washington to fail to protect them with vaccinations just because they happen to live in a certain county while other people in other counties and states are vaccinated. 

Our state and county health departments need to make sure that certain counties like Jefferson don’t unfairly have large percentage of unvaccinated people over 65 compared to other counties.

Douglas North
PORT TOWNSEND