Sadly, a sixth Vashon resident has died from COVID.
This latest death comes even though King County has been in the Low/Green CDC community risk classification for weeks. The previous Vashon fatality was reported by Public Health —Seattle & King County (PHSKC) in late March, more than five months ago.
Public Health recorded the new fatality in mid-August, but it takes time for PHSKC to confirm deaths are actually from COVID-19, so it took a while to show up in PHSKC reporting. In accordance with privacy laws and PHSKC policies, the names of patients are not released.
Expert: “We Cannot Accept This Reality”
Dr. Katelyn Jetelina, the author of the respected “Your Local Epidemiologist” blog, headed a recent post with this headline: “400 Americans are dying each day. We cannot accept this reality.”
In her post, she pointed to several statistics covered recently in this newsletter. She emphasized that COVID is the third leading cause of death in the United States, after heart disease and cancer. Since the pandemic began, life expectancy in the U.S. has dropped by two years, the sharpest decline in nearly a century. Age continues to be the strongest predictor of death from COVID.
Dr. Jetelina closed her post by saying: “We cannot accept this death toll in our society. We can do better.” You can read her post and see the data graphs that support her view at bit.ly/YLE400Dying.
Low/Green Risk Level: What Does it Mean?
The Low/Green CDC community risk classification combines multiple statistics into a single, easy-to-understand rating to help people make decisions about their personal actions to stay safe from COVID. The risk rating takes three factors into account:
• New COVID cases reported to the county/state per 100K population in the last 7 days.
• New COVID hospital admissions per 100K population in the last 7 days.
• Percentage of staffed inpatient hospital beds occupied by COVID patients (7-day average).
We report the CDC classification for King County as a whole. At the Low/Green risk level, the CDC recommends that everyone:
• Stay up to date on vaccinations, including recommended booster doses.
• Enhance indoor ventilation by circulating fresh air. Clean the room air by running air filters, such as HEPA air purifiers.
• Avoid contact with people who have suspected or confirmed COVID.
• Isolate if you test positive for COVID.
• Quarantine if you have been exposed to someone with COVID.
• Talk with your healthcare provider about additional actions if you are at high risk of getting COVID due to your health status or work exposure.
Omicron Booster: High Demand
Vashon residents eagerly consumed the island’s first small shipment of the new Omicron-targeting booster vaccines.
Vashon Pharmacy opened its first in-store vaccination appointments on the day it received an initial shipment of 300 doses. All those appointments were taken within six hours, even though it was a soft opening with no community outreach via email or social media. New supplies of vaccine have been arriving and more are on the way.
“People really like the idea that they can, for the first time, get a vaccine tuned to the currently dominant variants of the COVID virus,” said Tyler Young, owner of Vashon Pharmacy.
Young also said that many people are also signing up to get their flu shots at the same time so they can get both vaccinations in one trip.
“We are doing 50 to 60 Omicron booster injections per day right now in our store,” he said. “The online appointment page for our upcoming high-volume clinics is now up at VashonPharmacy.com/COVID.
The high-volume clinics begin on Oct. 1, and will increase the vaccination capacity to 450 per day.
Omicron Booster: Appointment Slots Now Open
The online appointment web page at Vashon Pharmacy has gone live and is one main gateway for getting an Omicron booster vaccine on the island.The Vashon Pharmacy high-volume vaccination clinics, which will be operated by the vaccination task force, will begin Oct. 1 and 2, and continue for about five weekends, subject to demand.
The high-volume clinics will be only for patients who are 18 or older. More details will be released soon regarding school-day vaccination clinics planned at the middle and high schools for Oct. 14 and 21, respectively.
In addition to the Vashon Pharmacy vaccination program, check with Sea Mar and Vashon Natural Medicine clinics on availability. The usual mainland options are also providing boosters, including pharmacy chains, county vaccination sites and healthcare networks.
Latest Vashon COVID Statistics
Source: Public Health — Seattle & King County (PHSKC) and Vashon Emergency Operations Center. New and historic case counts shown here reflect test results from the public health reporting system, which does not regularly capture results from home tests.
3 = New cases reported since the last weekly report (9 new cases in 14 days).
1,129 = Total reported COVID cases for Vashon residents since the pandemic began.
21 = Patients hospitalized since the pandemic began.
6 = Deaths since the pandemic began.
93.2% = Percentage of Vashon residents age 5+ who have completed the primary vaccine series, compared to 86.8% of the King County 5+ population.
68.3% = Percentage of Vashon residents age 5+ who have added a booster shot to their completed primary series.
For King County, the PHSKC dashboard for the last 30 days says people who are not fully vaccinated are 1.9 times more likely to get COVID, seven times more likely to be hospitalized for COVID and 10 times more likely to die of COVID.
