Boone County Columbia Health Department will randomly draw names for vaccine
COLUMBIA, MO (KMIZ)
The Columbia/Boone County Health Department will provide left over doses of Pfizer vaccine to individuals in Tier 2 of Phase 1B who are on the waiting list after completing the online survey.
The health department will randomly draw names of those who are on the vaccine waiting list to come to their Columbia vaccination site to receive the Pfizer vaccine. The department will call those on the Tier 2 vaccination waiting list between 3 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. Those individuals are asked to come to the designated vaccination clinic site within 30 minutes. If someone is unable to make the time slot, the department will proceed with choosing someone next on the list.
“They’ll get a phone call between probably 3:30 and 4 p.m. and we ask that they make it to our clinic in 30 minutes. We want people to know to if they can’t make it or if they’re unavailable that’s ok. You know this is not the only opportunity to get a vaccine for people in Tier 2.”, said Sarah Humm, spokeswoman for Columbia Boone County Health Department.
This will not be the only opportunity for the Tier 2 population to receive the vaccine. The department is still working through other phases and plans to start scheduling Tier 2 for vaccinations as soon as they work through vaccinating the other groups.
Humm, said this will take place if the department has left over vaccine doses from their previous appointments of the day. Due to the time limit in which Pfizer vaccine doses must be administered, the department wants to ensure to use them all before time runs out.
“We need to use the vaccine that’s left because there are certain time limits on when we open a vaccine and when it needs to be used and so it really varies from day to day.”, said Humm.
The health department is providing Boone Hospital with a list of their Tier 2 patients for vaccinations with the hospital as well. Humm says over 20,000 people filled out the survey and over 11,000 are apart of the Tier 2 population.
Humm asks the public to be patient as the department is working with a limited supply of the vaccine. She asks those who are interested to fill out the survey online, as the department is becoming flooded with phone calls and emails about the vaccine. The health department has sent out information about the vaccine procedures to those on the waiting list.
Mayor Brian Treece told ABC 17 that he reviewed this decision with the Public Health Ethics committee and believes it is equitable, as it will ensure no vaccine doses go to waste, and no one on the list is prioritized by when they signed up.
