Washington supply of COVID-19 vaccines drop as demand goes up
Health officials say that the supply in Washington this week and next week appears to have decreased from two weeks ago. Author: Glenn Farley Updated: 8:46 PM PDT April 16, 2021
LYNNWOOD, Wash. The supply of COVID-19 vaccine is noticeably decreasing as the State of Washington just made another 1.5 million people eligible on Thursday.
“We had believed, that the supply would have been increasing, at the time that eligibility was increasing. In fact, the supply has decreased,” said Dr. Jeff Duchin, health officer for Seattle-King County Public Health. “In fact this week, Vax Day week, we have fewer doses than we had two weeks ago. And we expect next week we will have fewer doses than we had two weeks ago.”
Concierge health care provider One Medical has been allowing ineligible people to receive COVID-19 vaccines. Staff questioned what they saw as inappropriate, internal documents obtained by NPR show.
Transcript
RACHEL MARTIN, HOST: An NPR investigation reveals that a major health care provider in the U.S. has been letting people jump the line to get COVID-19 vaccines. It s called One Medical. The company is part of a growing segment of America s health care system, a boutique primary health care provider that promises boutique service for an annual fee. One Medical went public last year and is now valued in the billions of dollars.
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RACHEL MARTIN, HOST: An NPR investigation reveals that a major health care provider in the U.S. has been letting people jump the line to get COVID-19 vaccines. It s called One Medical. The company is part of a growing segment of America s health care system, a boutique primary health care provider that promises boutique service for an annual fee. One Medical went public last year and is now valued in the billions of dollars.
Internal communications leaked to NPR show that the provider is giving vaccine shots to people who aren t yet eligible. Tim Mak of NPR s investigations team has the story and joins us now. Good morning, Tim.