A sign is set up in front of Cloverleaf Hall Tuesday, Jan. 19, 2021, directing individuals where to check in to for their COVID-19 vaccine. Close to 400 people, including the first group of senior citizens eligible, were slated to get vaccinated Jan. 19 or Jan. 22. 

ENTERPRISE — The most susceptible members of the general public when it comes to fending off COVID-19 had access to the COVID-19 vaccine beginning Tuesday, Jan. 19.

Getting there, though, required taking a rollercoaster ride that included a mass scheduling of 100s of appointments, then rescheduling a large percentage of those as reserve that was expected to come in didn’t.

Still, close to 400 individuals, including the tail end of Phase 1A recipients, and educators and seniors 80 and older in the opening stages of Phase 1B, received their first dose of the vaccine Tuesday or will get their shot on Friday, Jan. 22.

A wild swing of events began late in the evening on Jan. 12, when the Oregon Health Authority and the governor’s office — after a report that the federal government would be releasing a massive stockpile of the vaccine to the states to inoculate seniors — issued a directive to open vaccinations to anyone 65 and older beginning Jan. 23.

By the following morning, Wallowa Memorial Hospital was taking calls from seniors who wanted to book one of the appointments to get vaccinated at Cloverleaf Hall on Jan. 19 or Jan. 22.

WMH Communications Director Brooke Pace said on Jan. 13 that since the first phase of inoculation was wrapping up and there still was plenty of the vaccine on hand, the next wave of vaccinations could begin, which allowed for the earlier start date.

“We feel good that we have reached all of the Phase 1A people who are interested in receiving a vaccine,” Pace said at the time. “We currently have enough vaccine on hand to be able to start on this next group. Rather than sitting on (the) vaccine and waiting 10 days from now, we have decided to move forward.”

Immunizing the seniors was a move Pace called a “huge step” given those 65 and older have been by far the segment of the population hit hardest by COVID-19. According to data from the OHA, through Jan. 16, individuals age 60 and older have accounted for 1,600 of the reported 1,758 COVID-19 deaths in Oregon — 91% of all casualties — despite making up just more than 17% of all cases — 22,700 of 131,258.

According to U.S. Census data, close to 30% of Wallowa County’s population — roughly 2,000 to 2,100 individuals — falls into the 65-and-older category.

Pace said about 75 people were scheduled in the first hour after the hospital began taking calls for appointments, and all appointments for the available amount of vaccine on hand in the county were booked before the end of the day. On the morning of Jan. 15, Pace said there were 500 people signed up for first-round doses, and 420 more on a waiting list. There were more than 400 doses of the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine — the one allocated to Wallowa County — available.

The plan, though, was put on pause that morning after a tweet from Gov. Kate Brown that the state wouldn’t be receiving the “increased shipment of vaccines” from the national stockpile as it anticipated — information she said was confirmed by Gen. Gustave Perna of Operation Warp Speed. In the tweet, she said the stockpile did not exist.

Later on Jan. 15, Brown issued a revised rollout plan for the state. Educators will begin to get the vaccine beginning Jan. 25, while senior citizens will follow two weeks later on Feb. 8. The other major caveat Brown announced was that the vaccinations of senior citizens would begin with the 80-and-older age demographic — a group that has accounted for more than half of the state’s COVID deaths. From there, age 75 and older will be eligible a week later, with 70 and then 65, respectively, becoming eligible in the following weeks.

Locally, the news did not change the days Wallowa County seniors could be immunized this week given what the county had available, but did require a major shift. Educators and the final remaining Phase 1A vaccine recipients who already signed up were still eligible to get shots beginning Jan. 19.

But many of the 500 inoculation appointments that had already been set up for this week needed to be rescheduled to align the county with the state order.

Any senior citizens younger than 80 who had signed up to get vaccinated were moved to a waiting list to make room for residents 80 and older who had not yet signed up to get shots, Pace said. She added on Jan. 18 that there were 321 individuals moved to a waiting list.

Notifying numerous individuals that they had to be moved to a waiting list — only days after telling them the could get vaccinated — was challenging.

“This, of course, was a hard day,” Pace said in an email. “Calling hundreds of people to inform them that they are now NOT eligible to receive the vaccine yet is disheartening. However, we are committed to do whatever necessary to get the vaccine out to the appropriate groups as quickly as possible.”

Once those 80 and older are immunized, the county will move to the 75-and-up group, then down through the age ranges according to the methodology set up by the state.

Pace said 385 doses of the vaccine are scheduled to be administered to the final Phase 1A recipients and the first wave of educators and senior citizens between Tuesday and Friday.

Pace is not yet certain of when the hospital will move to the next segment of individuals.

“It is too soon to tell,” she said Jan. 18. “We have no indication of when we will receive more vaccine. People who are 80-plus and not currently scheduled or on a waitlist are encouraged to call 541-426-5437 to be put on the priority list.”

Pace added that those who had to receive calls about their appointments being moved have been understanding.

“Everyone has been very kind and understanding that this isn’t a result of a choice we have made, but rather a direct result of the federal supply and the state’s directive,” she said.

The Moderna COVID-19 vaccine, which has been found to be about 95% effective, is given in two doses at least 28 days apart.