coronavirus vaccine

Washington State employees will no longer be required to get a COVID-19 vaccination in order to keep their jobs.

A proposal in the Washington Legislature would make it a crime to use or sell a fake COVID-19 vaccination card. The sponsor says he wants to deter people from even considering the ruse, but he also wants to send a signal to prosecutors to prioritize these cases as a matter of protecting public health.

At the Northwest Detention Center in Tacoma, those detained received the Johnson and Johnson COVID-19 vaccine. Some are now two months or more from their inoculation, meaning that under CDC recommendations, they would be eligible for their booster.

Emergency authorization for the Pfizer Covid-19 vaccine for children ages 5 to 11 was given last week by the CDC. Parents of kids that age have lots of questions.

Washington has nine independently elected statewide officeholders. All but one of those elected officials has required their employees to get the COVID-19 vaccine. The holdout was the lone Republican.

In several areas of the state, school resource officers are contracted employees from sheriff’s departments. Pierce and Benton county both supply sheriff deputies to local school districts as school resource officers. In the Kiona Benton school district, the school resource officer is sheriff deputy Brad Klippert, who is also a state representative.

Roughly nine in 10 employees of the state of Washington are now vaccinated against COVID-19. Gov. Jay Inslee considers that a huge success and a win for public health. But his vaccine mandate has also led to the departure of hundreds of state employees. Now there are questions about the implications for some state services.

Ninety two percent of Washington state employees are vaccinated against COVID-19.

Good news for parents of kids that are between five and eleven. Dr. Person, the Health Officer for Benton Franklin Health Department believes by the middle of November kids should be able to be vaccinated against COVID-19.

Washington Governor Jay Inslee’s vaccine mandate has survived an 11th hour court challenge. On Monday, Thurston County Superior Court Judge Carol Murphy denied a motion for an injunction to block the mandate from taking effect.