Contingency plans in place to avoid wasting vaccine doses in Cole County, state
JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (KMIZ)
As Cole County is preparing for its first mass vaccination clinic Friday, plans are in place to avoid wasting any of the "valuable resources."
The mass vaccination event will be at the Linc in Jefferson City. It starts at 8 a.m. and is by appointment only. All of the appointments have already been filled, and leaders are asking community members not to show up to the event unless you have an appointment.
Cole County Health Department Director Kristi Campbell said there are 2,016 appointments, and they hope they will be able to vaccinate 72 people every 15 minutes.
To avoid wasting any doses of the vaccine, Campbell said staff will be monitoring the number of people who don't show up for their appointment to avoid overdrawing doses.
The Pfizer Vaccine will be used Friday. Once a dose is drawn up in a syringe, it must be used within 6 hours. Campbell said if there are any doses left because of no-shows, they will call people on their vaccine registry list.
"By the end of the day, if we see that people haven't shown up, we will have a list with us and we will start calling, "Campbell said. "We will make sure that no dose is wasted."
Leaders are asking the community not to wait outside of the clinic tomorrow, as they will be calling people if there are openings and not allowing walk-ins.
"We all have a list, so there may be phone calls at the end of the day tomorrow to see if people can get there as quickly as possible," Campbell said.
If there is any unused and unmixed vaccine from the event, it will be taken back to the Cole County Health Department's clinic and given out next week.
Some local lawmakers have brought up concerns of wasted doses of the vaccine. The Missouri House of Representatives' Health and Mental Health Policy Committee held a hearing with the State's health department Wednesday to address several issues.
Democratic Representative from Columbia Martha Stevens asked Director of DHSS Dr. Randall Williams questions about wasted doses at various events across the state.
Some lawmakers brought up concerns over 1,000 unused doses of the vaccine at the Audrain County mass vaccination event. Robert Knodell, the governor’s deputy chief of staff, said the local health departments and national guard have contingency plans in place.
"They have a plan to execute the follow up event if necessary or appointments with those individuals that had reservations that were not able to be vaccinated that day," Knodell said. "The national guard has a very robust contingency system."
Dr. Williams told Rep. Stevens reporting wasted doses is mandatory for the state, and will be public data.
