Seattle, with the third-largest homeless population in the U.S., has seen at least 1,400 of them test positive for COVID-19 and 22 die since the pandemic began. More than 100 shelters and other homeless service sites have had outbreaks. Homeless people are at greater risk of being infected and greater risk of hospitalization and death than the average person, said Bobby Watts, CEO of the National Health Care for the Homeless Council. Shorter lifespans — chronic homelessness can take 20 to 30 years off a person’s life — should have qualified them for vaccination priority much earlier, Watts said. Instead, political pressure to vaccinate older adults moved them to the back of the line. Clinics serving them, Watts said, “were put in the unreasonable position of saying, ‘I know all of you are at high risk, but I can vaccinate only the few or you who are over age 70.’” In Seattle, it will take at least two months to get the vaccine to an estimated 575 housing, shelter and service sites, 85 unsanctioned encampments and nine youth service sites.
Carla K Johnson, 'Homeless Americans finally getting a chance at COVID-19 shot', AP News