2K get Covid-19 vaccine at Amazon one-day clinic in Seattle
Amazon threw open the doors of one of its South Lake Union buildings Sunday in an effort to vaccinate about 2,000 people.
The one-day vaccine blitz was the product of a partnership between the Seattle-based online retailer and Virginia Mason.
The line to get into Amazon's auditorium stretched around the block. Inside, it was like a vaccine delivery assembly line.
Amazon employees volunteered to direct the line. Half of the enormous room was taken up by dozens of socially-distanced stations where nurses were giving vaccine shots. The other half was full of chairs, where patients sat for 15 minutes to make sure they didn’t have an allergic reaction to the Covid-19 vaccine.
After spending 15 minutes under observation, people checked out with a nurse, scheduled their second shot, and headed out the door.
Virginia Mason set up this clinic because Washington Governor Jay Inslee told hospitals that once they receive doses from the state, they have to get them out the door quickly. So Virgina Mason partnered with Amazon to get these 2,000 vaccine doses out of its freezer.
"They designed it. They laid it out. We brought our vaccine," said Dana Nelson-Peterson, Virginia Mason's vice president of nursing. "We brought medical supplies, and the staff to administer and observe the patients afterwards."
Nelson-Peterson said that Amazon reached out to Virginia Mason, offering the space for the mass vaccination clinic. People signed up online to get the shots.
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The first doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine are administered on Sunday, January 24, 2021, during a one-day pop up Covid-19 vaccine clinic at Amazon's headquarters in Seattle.
Alicia Canares, 79, was "relieved" after she got her shot.
"I was apprehensive in the beginning," she said. "I was thinking, 'Should I get it or should I not?' But then I decided, 'Yeah.'"
Canares was vaccinated that day along with her 82-year-old husband Celespino.
Governor Inslee has also asked other companies to help with the vaccination effort in the state. Microsoft and Starbucks have plans to partner with Overlake and Evergreen Hospitals to set up a permanent high-volume vaccination site on Microsoft's Redmond campus.
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Eilis O'Neill
Reporter
Eilís (eye-LEASH) fell in love with radio as a 14-year-old high school intern at KUOW. Since then, she’s wandered the world recording people’s stories and telling them on the air.
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