News Room

Will you get a text from your doctor? Will you read about it online? Or will you have to check the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention website to know when it's your turn in line? As COVID-19 vaccines roll out to limited groups of people across the United States, how people learn they are eligible to get their shots won't be as clear while supplies remain limited, according to public health and policy experts and state vaccination plans. "I think it's going to be a little bit murky," said Katie Greene, a visiting policy associate at the Duke-Margolis Center for Health Policy.

Mass vaccination offers hope for a return to the prepandemic normal. But the distribution process also comes with some potentially nasty side effects: Vaccination without a careful plan could inadvertently make the world even more unequal than a year ago. The two initial vaccine candidates, from Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna, may have particularly problematic consequences for inequality. But the candidate that may have seemed like a runner-up in the vaccine race, from Oxford- AstraZeneca, has strong potential to finish as the most essential vaccine to end the pandemic.

Immunization of health-care workers and residents of long-term care facilities has begun.  With each day bringing over 250,000 new confirmed cases and well over 2,000 additional deaths in the U.S., help is on the way to curb the COVID-19 momentum plaguing our nation. The full benefits of the vaccine will not be realized until tens of millions of people receive their two-dose regimen, which will likely not occur until the summer of 2021.  

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved two COVID-19 vaccines under the Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) process. With these approvals, the immunization of health care workers and those in long-term care facilities has begun, providing them with a measure of protection against COVID-19. Waiting in the immunization queue are essential workers and at-risk populations. The expectation is that vaccines will be available for all who wish to be immunized by the middle of 2021.

Washington state will rely on an honor system to determine eligibility for COVID-19 vaccinations, so those administering vaccines do not have to police who qualifies. The state plans to launch an online questionnaire — called PhaseFinder — soon where people can determine their own eligibility for vaccination. When more vaccination sites are available, members of the public could present screenshots of their questionnaire results at vaccination sites, said Mary Huynh, a deputy director at the state Department of Health. The state also plans to provide a template letter for employers to vouch for workers’ eligibility.