Relieved, excited and ready. Hundreds line up for COVID vaccinations at Tri-Cities fairgrounds

Victoria Martinez was relieved to be waiting in line at last for one of 500 doses of the COVID-19 vaccine given at the fairgrounds in Kennewick.

She, along with her 11-year-old grandson, had loaded her car with pillows and snacks, preparing to wait for hours for the first dose of the vaccine.

“My grandson was the one that said, ‘Grandma, let’s go,’” she said. “I was going to wait until the next series, like, ‘Oh, I’ll wait. I’ll wait.’ But he said, ‘No Grandma. Come on.’”

Martinez, 57, lives in a multi-generational household and has underlying health conditions, making her currently eligible in Washington state for a vaccine.

The Kennewick resident was one of hundreds who started lining up outside of the Benton County Fairgrounds as early as 7:30 a.m. Monday — opening day of the mass vaccination site activated by the state with the help of local health officials and the Washington National Guard.

Cars and trucks snaked their way through the parking lot of the fairgrounds, and by 10:30 a.m. officials were saying they had 500 people waiting to start receiving shots at 1 p.m.

The site reopens at 8:30 a.m. Tuesday.

Appointment confusion

While things went smoothly at the fairgrounds, there was a chaotic clash of information online as the Department of Health said appointments would be required and local officials explained they aren’t able to process those.

“This appointment system is not operational and the site will remain a first-come, first-serve location until further notice,” according to a release from Evelyn Lusignan, with the city of Kennewick for the team handling the vaccination site.

Everyone was asked to have their ID ready and to check with FindYourPhasewa.org before coming to the site. Once the vaccinations started, people will drive into a registration tent and pull into a separate tent to get their first dose of the vaccine.

Once the vaccine was ready, they planned on administering three doses every minute. A section of the parking lot was cordoned off for people to wait to see if they had any side effects before they could drive away.

Aphrodite Beidler, a Richland mental health counselor, was 16th in line at the Benton County Fairgrounds after arriving at 7:30 a.m.

“See I brought my reading with me,” she said holding up a copy of a book about group treatment. “It’s a good opportunity to use the time well. ... I was expecting that they would open at 8 a.m.”

Beidler rescheduled almost all of her appointments and was excited about getting the vaccine.

First opportunity

Beidler got her permission to get the vaccine a couple of weeks ago, but hasn’t been able to find a place to schedule an appointment.

Even with her attempts, the places she tried either didn’t have it available or she wasn’t able to schedule an appointment.

“I’ve been approved for two weeks, but I couldn’t get in anywhere,” she said. “I am committed. I am car number 16. So I’m going to stick it out.”

Larry Whalen of West Richland showed up at 8:30 a.m. When he drove by to check on whether there was any change, people were already lining up.

The nearly 80-year-old had been approved to get vaccinated at Kadlec Regional Medical Center in Richland, but had to wait two weeks because he recently received his shingles vaccine.

“I’ve been looking forward to it for a couple of weeks, anyway,” he said. “Today’s the first day that I’m eligible.”

Whalen didn’t have any concerns about getting the vaccine since he remembers the mass vaccinations for polio when he was in the third grade.

For Martinez, she was worried after seeing friends share what turned out to be misinformation about the vaccine on Facebook.

“I had to do a lot of soul searching,” she said. “I had to really say, ‘OK God, I trust you, should I do it. The tug on my heart was, ‘Trust the science.’”

This story was originally published January 25, 2021 at 2:58 PM.