WHATCOM COUNTY, Wash. – Whatcom County has shot down the Point Roberts fire chief’s idea to use the peninsula’s extra vaccines to help our neighbors in Canada.
Chief Christopher Carleton offered to establish a pop-up clinic to serve Canadian citizens with ties to Point Roberts along with local residents.
But the Whatcom County Health Department said in a statement that their priority is to ensure that county residents continue to have access to vaccines, and that the county is not in a position to be an option for the millions of Canadians who live in the lower British Columbia mainland.
Carleton points out that other clinics are held without determining where people live and calls the health department’s stance discriminatory.
He says the Whatcom County directive does not fall in line with the state Department of Health that has said anyone within Washington has the right to be vaccinated.
He says he hopes the local health department will reconsider its position in light of our community’s reliance on Canadian visitors.