KALAMAZOO COUNTY, MI (WKZO AM/FM) — In the news, residents may have seen the trucks leaving the Pfizer plant in Portage Sunday loaded with the COVID-19 vaccine.
They went straight to the airport. None of it has found its way back to Kalamazoo yet, despite the fact that the County Health Department is one of a dozen distribution hubs in the State.
During a virtual County board meeting Tuesday night, Health Director Jim Rutherford says they hope their first shipment will arrive Wednesday, but he says it could be Friday before they get their first 900 doses.
It will all be used to inoculate healthcare workers, EMS crews and residents at nursing homes. In fact, the first few shipments will go to those designated as being most at risk. The group designations are listed in phases on the County health department website as follows:
- Phase 1A: includes paid and unpaid persons serving in health care settings who have direct or indirect exposure to patients or infectious materials and are unable to work from home, as well as residents of long-term care facilities.
- Phase 1B: includes some workers in essential and critical industries, including workers with unique skill sets such as non-hospital or non-public health laboratories and mortuary services.
- Phase 1C: includes people at high risk for severe COVID-19 illness due to underlying medical conditions, and people 65 years and older.
- Phase 2: all other adults
Seniors who live at home are in group 1-C and probably won’t be eligible to get vaccinated until after the New Year.
The homeless, residents at the Psychiatric Hospital, foster home residents and first responders are all high on the list. So are teachers, but their students may be the last to get the shots. Rutherford says research is still being done to determine the efficacy of the vaccines in those under 16.
In addition, Rutherford says the rest of the population will have to be patient and continue to observe good hygiene, wear masks and keep their distance for the time being. His goal is to have enough of the community inoculated by summer to create a kind of “herd immunity” that will permit life to get back to normal and for schools to reopen next fall.
There are a lot of things that could happen that could create delays and slow down the process, but Rutherford says there will also be new vaccines approved and made available which could speed things up.
In the meantime, Rutherford says the department will be working with community groups and others to educate the population about the vaccines and to convince reluctant residents that the shots are safe.
Rutherford says it will be a major undertaking and it will take the cooperation of the entire community to make it happen smoothly. The County has set up its Emergency Command Center and their Incident Command personnel, both of which are ready to go.
The Super-freezers are plugged in, and now the department is waiting for the shipments to arrive.
—Copy Written by John McNeil —
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