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Washington's Top Health Official Says No To Changing Covid Doses

Screenshot from Facebook Live

Washington health secretary Umair Shah says he’s not in favor of Covid vaccinators around the state changing the dose or skipping out on the second shot.

Those measures have been suggested as a way to get some protection to more people in a faster manner or as a way to maximize the vaccines’ effectiveness.

Shah says he might change his mind if new information about the vaccines becomes known, but for now, the main focus should be to get as much vaccine as possible to local health care providers.

“The second piece of this is that the trials that were done, the clinical trials for both Moderna and Pfizer that showed the, for Pfizer 95% efficacy or effectiveness and 94% for the Moderna vaccine, those both were with the understanding of two doses," he said.

Shah says he wants to make sure people get the full vaccine protection, especially with new variants of this coronavirus being discovered.

Speaking of that, Shah says Washington health officials are looking for evidence that it now has a presence in this state. So far, he says, there is no evidence of that. Inslee wouldn’t speculate about whether new protective measures would be taken if that new strain makes an appearance in Washington.