KALAMAZOO, MI (WKZO AM/FM) — Kalamazoo Health Officials have begun mass inoculations with the COVID-19 vaccine and for the first month or more, they will be by invitation only.
The offense against the deadly virus begins as the death toll in Kalamazoo County has reached 223. Nationwide it has crested 320,000 and is rising as the pandemic continues to rage out of control.
The County’s Chief Medical official, Dr. William Nettleton, says the first doses were given to front line healthcare workers on Friday. A new shipment arrived Monday and hundreds of EMT’s and others involved in COVID care will get those shots during Health Department clinics at the Expo Center this week and next.
Dr. William Nettleton. (Photo by John McNeil).
Nursing homes are getting their doses from the private sector. Operation Warp Speed has contracted with Walgreens and CVS to deliver those shipments.
Bronson Hospital and Ascension Borgess have also received shipments and will use them in-house to vaccinate the doctors and nurses who are caring for their growing population of COVID victims.
Dr. Nettleton says because the Pfizer vaccines are in short supply and must be kept frozen at 90 to 100 degrees below zero, they are rationing them exclusively through those agencies that have the super-cold freezers required to store the vials.
Nettleton expects vaccines from Moderna to begin arriving in a week or two. Those still need to be frozen, but just below zero, and will get wider distribution. Both need to be administered in two separate inoculations, weeks apart.
Health Director Jim Rutherford says it may be late spring before they reach Phase 2 when the general population will be able to get the shots. He says that’s if additional vaccines are approved by the FDA and there are no glitches in the supply chain before then.
Phase 1 focuses on inoculating healthcare workers, those most at risk of complications, the elderly and folks holding down essential jobs, like police and teachers.
Rutherford says the initial recipients are broken down into three general categories, and many subcategories. Those groups will be notified through their employers, healthcare agencies or through the media as they become eligible.
Rutherford says he is confident his department can gear up to inoculate everyone who wants a shot, but only if the vaccines are available. Right now the doses are only trickling in. He says the government can only give him vague information about shipment schedules long range because so much depends on the availability of raw materials, the manufacturing and distribution of the drugs, and how soon new vaccines are tested and approved.
This Public Health response to this pandemic is the largest in history, and already Rutherford says a partnership is working locally to get the vaccine out. He says that partnership will have to expand as more vaccines become available and it’s possible to hold more and more clinics around the county.
He says it will take the entire healthcare community and many other agencies to stop the spread of the deadly virus, which continues to infect a record number of people almost every day.
Rutherford adds the distribution will be shaped like a funnel with the wide side down, and infection rates and deaths will decline as the funnel widens.
COVID-19 vaccination clinic in Kalamazoo County. (Photo by John McNeil).
The goal is to achieve immunity in 75% of the population, either because they had the disease and recovered or got the shot. He says until then, keep wearing masks and social distancing.
The inoculation rate will accelerate if and when new vaccines that need no refrigeration and require only one dose are approved. They will likely be sent to rural areas and countries where there are no super-freezers available.
Eventually, it will be possible to get a vaccination for COVID from your druggist or doctor, just like a flu shot. In fact, it may become a regular part of your healthcare regimen if researchers determine that the immunity wears off in a year or two, or if it mutates.
— Copy Written by John McNeil —
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