PORT TOWNSEND — Immediately after receiving the first COVID-19 vaccinations on the North Olympic Peninsula early Wednesday afternoon, Dr. Tracie Harris and nurse Tom Heuberger heard jubilation in the form of cheering from a small but loud group of Jefferson Healthcare workers.
Harris, 48, the first recipient of the Pfizer vaccine at Jefferson Healthcare hospital, said she’d initially been hesitant. This vaccine was tested on tens of thousands — not millions — of people, she said, so all of its side effects may not be known.
But Harris, an internist and hospitalist who cares for COVID-stricken and other seriously ill patients at the hospital, has a background in virology and cell biology.
The technology of this vaccine form, she said, is more than a decade old.
Scientists “far smarter than me thought about all of this first,” and have conducted the research and testing that make her confident in receiving the historic shot.
Her colleague, Tom Heuberger, a nurse and night supervisor who had just finished seven consecutive 12-hour shifts, was next.
“I want everybody to get it, really,” he said quietly. Heuberger’s mother recently ended a 14-day stay in an Oregon hospital; she’s now in hospice care in The Dalles, her lungs severely damaged by the unique coronavirus.
Nurse coordinator Erin Wallner, left, and clinical manager Jaimie Hoobler prepare the first COVID vaccines at Jefferson Healthcare hospital Wednesday, Dec. 16, 2020. (Diane Urbani de la Paz/Peninsula Daily News)
Heuberger, 63, began his career in medicine while a corpsman in the Army, and he has worked through the AIDS and SARS pandemics. When news of COVID began to spread last winter, he prepared himself.
Now, “we’re in the height of it. This is the worst it’s been,” he said of the 2020 pandemic.
On Wednesday at Jefferson Healthcare, just 35 people were scheduled to receive their first doses of the COVID vaccine. Today at 6 a.m., immunization of frontline workers will shift into high gear at the hospital’s drive-thru station, where many local residents got flu shots this fall.
Olympic Medical Center in Port Angeles is set to begin testing its vaccination procedures Friday, said spokesperson Bobby Beeman.
Each hospital has received one unit, 975 doses, to administer to frontline workers including doctors, nurses, first responders and people in skilled nursing facilities, said Jefferson Healthcare spokesperson Amy Yaley.
The shots in this first unit will be administered, it is hoped, by Dec. 24.
“This is a huge feat,” Yaley said, and it’s just step one.
The second shipment of vaccine is expected to arrive in 17 to 21 days, she said, in time for the required second dose.
It will then take weeks before recipients become immune to COVID.
The state Department of Health has set parameters for who can receive the vaccine when, she added. Phase 1A includes high-risk healthcare workers such as Heuberger and Harris.
The 1B phase covers people with multiple risk factors for death from infection with the coronavirus; Yaley said that group could amount to quite a large number on the North Olympic Peninsula, with its older population.
In the meantime, Jefferson Healthcare plans to turn a vacant lot it owns across from nearby Manresa Castle into a larger drive-thru vaccination site, said Jake Davidson, executive director of Jefferson Healthcare’s medical group.
“That will probably be up after Christmas,” he said, “and we’ll be able to do double or triple the amount we can do in the first drive-thru.”
“I know a lot of people are very anxious to receive this,” Yaley said, noting jeffersonhealthcare.org has a webpage devoted to the hospital’s COVID-19 response and vaccine plan.
Tom Heuberger, a nurse and night supervisor at Jefferson Healthcare hospital, receives the Peninsula’s second vaccination against COVID-19 on Wednesday, Dec. 16, 2020, from nurse Jess Cigalotti. (Diane Urbani de la Paz/Peninsula Daily News)
By Wednesday, 320 of Jefferson Healthcare’s workers had registered to be vaccinated, she said. Some declined this first round, saying they will wait and see.
Both Heuberger and Harris said Jefferson County has been spared the staggering toll of the coronavirus — partly from good fortune but largely because of the care people have taken.
“Our community has been incredibly lucky — and incredibly effective in our public health measures,” Harris said.
Masking, social distancing, paying attention to air flow, hand hygiene: “these things work,” she said.
Yet there is a lot of suffering, Heuberger said, in workplaces and homes. He’s seen an uptick in patients coming into the emergency room with mental health struggles. His nursing staff is coping with intense stress.
Heuberger and his wife have two children attending school at home.
Harris, for her part, plans a Christmas in Port Townsend with her husband and children, ages 11 and 13.
“Our choice is to stay local and stay isolated,” she said.
“But go big,” with a thankful feast, even if it’s just for the four of them.
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Jefferson County senior reporter Diane Urbani de la Paz can be reached at 360-417-3509 or durbanidelapaz@peninsuladailynews.com.
