Chelan Douglas Health District Issues Statement On The Vaccine Card Forgery Story

That I broke on Sunday, Jan. 16, 2021

The Chelan Douglas Health District today issued a press release regarding the alleged vaccine card forgery story involving a local pharmacist that I broke on Sunday, Jan. 16.

“CDHD was made aware in mid to late October of last year that a local pharmacist was allegedly issuing fraudulent vaccine cards without actually administering a COVID-19 vaccine. CDHD immediately reported the situation to local law enforcement, State Attorney General and WA State Department of Health. CDHD also reported the situation to the local pharmacy’s district manager. CDHD’s involvement was limited other than notifying the appropriate authorities,” health officials wrote.

Here’s a screenshot of the statement, for good measure.

Other media outlets, like King 5 out of Seattle and KREM in Spokane, picked up this angle of the story and reported on it this week. The funny thing is I reached out to King 5 when I filed my public records request way back in December but they blew me off.

In the press release, CDHD officials write they got word of the caper in mid to late October. I heard about it in early December and the first records request I put in was with the East Wenatchee Police Department. They denied me any documents, as the case was and still is open I’m told. It was about mid-December before it occurred to me to put in a request with the Fire District. More on that at the end of this post.

As of yet, no other media have picked up on the fact that the forged vaccine cards (that we know about) went to two first responders in Douglas County. You can read the whole story in my last article.

Some have asked me why other media haven’t picked up that side of the story yet. I can’t be completely sure, but I’m almost positive it’s because they don’t have the documents I have, yet. I suspect that on Tuesday of this week the Douglas County Fire Protection District was deluged with public records requests about the case. I suspect that if other reporters have their hands on the documents currently sitting in a binder on my desk there will be a flurry of stories about Captain Seth Ellis and Firefighter Josh Bollinger.

I use the word “if” because the obstacles other media outlets might encounter are injunctions from the firefighter’s union. When I filed my FOIA request Chief Brian Brett sent me back an official letter saying that the district had to give the union time to file injunctions to bar access to all the documents. But I filed my request right before the Christmas break and when I went into get the documents Brett told me the union didn’t have time to get a lawyer to file the injunction before the district had to release the records to me. So time will tell if other reporters get all the documents I got. At this point, why bar others from receiving documents and emails a member of the media has already? On the other hand I haven’t released or reported on all the documents I have in my possession, and as for giving them to other members of the media – I am disinclined to do so.