WA is reopening but many essential workers aren’t vaccinated yet
How the state chose who to inoculate first raises questions about equity especially for restaurant, grocery and transit workers.
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A man stands amid chairs in a post-vaccination waiting area at Lumen Field Event Center s COVID-19 vaccination site on March 13, 2021. (Matt M. McKnight/Crosscut)
In early March 2020, Julee Richards remembers sitting in stunned silence with her co-workers in the breakroom. COVID-19 had just been declared a global pandemic, and panicked shoppers were starting to swarm the Fred Meyer near Tacoma where Richards works as a cashier.
Over the next few weeks, a number of employees quit out of concern for their safety, leaving Richards and those who remained to manage the crowds on their own. “We barely survived through May,” she said.