Herrera Beutler tours county COVID-19 testing, vaccination site

On her visit to a local mass vaccination site, Clark County’s Congresswoman noted the irony when she saw people intent on getting their skin broken.

“It’s so funny to see people lined up with smiles to get a shot,” U.S. Rep Jaime Herrera Beutler, R-Battle Ground, said during her visit to the Tower Mall mass COVID-19 testing and vaccination site April 5. 

Herrera Beutler was visiting to see the site in action, a product of coordination between Clark County Public Health and a number of other partners, both public and private. The site sees more than 1,000 individuals receive their doses on a daily basis.

Her trip comes more than a year after Clark County was thrust into an official emergency situation, seeing more than 19,000 of its inhabitants as confirmed COVID-19 cases. The vaccination part of the site began in early March as the latest effort to curtail the pandemic’s activity.

“It’s been all hands on deck over a year now, and throwing everything that we can at it. This really feels like we’re finally taking some ground,” Herrera Beutler said. “And it was fun to see people, like, happy to get a shot.” 

Herrera Beutler said she personally was not a fan of getting a shot. 

“Seeing them happy to come and get this (vaccine) is a step in the right direction. It’s encouraging,” she said.

Herrera Beutler spoke positively of the operation she saw in Vancouver that Monday.

“Honestly, it’s a pretty well-oiled machine,” Herrera Beutler said about the Tower Mall operation. “The only question is, how do we get more people who are waiting (and) who want it to be able to come through and get their vaccines?”

Clark County Public Health Director Alan Melnick remarked that he felt better as of the visit than he did in the first few weeks of vaccine administration, which began in the county shortly before the new year. He noted work by representatives of the local community helped distribution be more effective.

Herrera Beutler said the first weeks of vaccine rollout were not good for Clark County. She noted that she was able to ask Washington state Health Secretary Umair Shah about the vaccine discrepancy during a congressional hearing, where he made mention of the number of “moving parts” that factored into the equation of getting people jabbed.

“My belief isn’t that someone wasn’t withholding from us for some weird reason, but the reality is there’s a lot of moving parts,” Herrera Beutler explained, adding that it was the job of those in Congress to advocate on the behalf of their constituents.

Melnick said local health care officials, both public and private, were instrumental in advocacy for greater vaccine levels in Clark County. He said the Clark County Fairgrounds mass vaccination site differed from the Tower Mall site in that it was operated at a state level, whereas Tower Mall was federally-funded.

Both Herrera Beutler and Melnick spoke about the necessity of getting essential workers vaccinated, specifically about those workers who aren’t immediately visible in commonplace, such as factory workers in food processing. Melnick referenced an outbreak of the disease last year, likely the Firestone Pacific Foods outbreak, that sickened dozens.

“It wasn’t just the workers who got infected, their family members did as well,” Melnick said. 

He added that alongside the mass vaccination sites, the county has organized mobile vaccination units that have helped the homebound and long-term care facilities in getting individuals their shots.

Overall, Herrera Beutler’s tone during the visit was one of relief. She was happy the county, the state, and the federal government’s efforts were moving in the right direction.

“We’re excited about getting back to normal,” Herrera Beutler remarked. “I don’t know about you, but I am so over this pandemic, and anything we can do to move us forward, to get our businesses moving, to get our kids back in school, this is a huge part of that goal.”