State grapples with reducing social distancing rules, possible fourth COVID-19 wave

As demand for the COVID-19 vaccination continues to outpace supply, there is a call for Washington state teachers to be given priority for a few days to help reopen schools faster.

The Biden Administration is lobbying for school campuses to reopen sooner by making it clear that teachers and staff should get vaccinated as soon as possible.

But some want to go one step further and give teachers, staff and childcare workers priority for the COVID-19 vaccine, even if just for a few days.

“Given that (Biden Administration) directive, should we have some kind of separate two- or three-day period where we just say we’re getting all educators vaccinated with everything we’ve got for this period?" State Sen. David Frockt, D-Seattle, said Wednesday.

The state's new health secretary cautioned against that approach.

“It’s a zero-sum game,” said Dr. Umair Shah. “Those two or three days you will have seniors who are not able to get vaccines and we are absolutely prioritizing seniors. Health workers, long-term care facilities and then seniors because they are at the most risk of having a bad outcome if they get infected with COVD-19.

”And that’s why if we had unlimited vaccine supply it makes sense," Shah said. "But right now we just don’t and we want to be really careful of not moving somebody out of the line that we do think is at risk for a bad hospitalization or even death.”

However, several school districts around the state are providing separate vaccination clinics for teachers and staff that are also open to the general public.

Many districts have asked Gov. Jay Inslee and the state health department to divert doses to their school clinics to speed up the process.

The question also surfaced at the hearing on whether those who have already had COVID should still get vaccinated, which Assistant Health Secretary Michelle Roberts said the guidance from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control is ye. But they don't yet know how long people are immune after being infected.

As other states start to fully reopen, there is a debate in Washington state about easing the six-foot distancing requirement.

That has been a real challenge for educators to devise a setting in classrooms that accommodate the six-foot separation.

State Sen. Mike Padden, R-Spokane Valley, asked about Illinois reducing its social distancing requirement from from six feet to three feet.

“If you go to three feet, I really worry that if you have some of this encroachment on that preventive measure, now you’re at two feet or 2 1/2 feet,” Shah said. “Now you are right next to each other. That is a significant concern for me.”

“There is some emerging evidence it could be very possible to do this without a reduction in safety,” Inslee said. “So, we’re evaluating that science right now. We’ve not made any final decisions on this.”

“I think there are many schools for whom that's a huge roadblock and they may not be able to do that,” said Dr. Elizabeth Meade, president of the Washington chapter of the American Academy of Pediatricians. “So in that case we think that three to six feet is a good goal.”

Dr. Scott Lindquist , the state's acting health officer, said while current COVID case numbers are looking good, he is concerned we may be setting up for a fourth wave because of new variants, especially those from the U.K. and South Africa.

Lindquist told the state Board of Health Wednesday that as you look at the graph of cases for the last year each wave is getting bigger and bigger while the low points are getting higher and higher.

“Higher baselines after each wave seem to precede the next wave,” said Lindquist. “And so this third wave which was massive and much higher than anything else, where we have come down on that you can see we’re not quite to a steady state, yet. But my concern is that this steady state is going to be higher than previous steady states after waves which the concern is this sets us up for a fourth wave.”

He said the good news is in the form of vaccines because the federal government is stepping up deliveries, which started at 100,000 doses a week and grew to 200,000 and is now going to be 300,000.

Lindquist added that the state was originally told after the initial 60,900 doses from Johnson & Johnson that deliveries would not arrive for an additional three weeks. But he is now hearing more may be on the way sooner.