Vaccination rates are falling. COVID cases are rising. Will Pierce County ever reopen? News Tribune, Tacoma, Wash. 5/8/2021 Debbie Cockrell, The News Tribune (Tacoma, Wash.) May 8—Pierce County, you have a COVID vaccine problem: Not enough people are showing up to get it. The "why" to the story is complicated. There is an abundance of places to get vaccinated, but appointment slots are going unfilled. Amid steadily rising cases, the county seems to have hit what one health department representative described as the "tipping point" of supply and demand. Kayla Scrivner, immunization branch director for the Tacoma-Pierce County Health Department, told the Board of Health on Wednesday that mass vaccine sites started to see a noticeable drop-off in recent weeks.