Mid-Missouri health officials: More resources needed to achieve President Biden’s ‘return to normalcy’
COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)
In a primetime address to the nation on Thursday night, President Joe Biden announced his plan to have all US adults vaccine-eligible by May 1 and to get the country closer to normal by July 4.
“By July the Fourth, there’s a good chance your families and friends will be able to get together in your backyard or your neighborhood and have a cookout or a barbecue and celebrate Independence Day,” Biden said.
The Columbia/Boone County health department is prepared to vaccinate the local population if more vaccine supply becomes available, a spokeswoman told ABC 17.
Sara Humm with the health department said the only hindrance to making Biden's plan a reality is to have enough vaccine.
"If we have the supply available, that's definitely something that is possible," Humm said. "We will have the capacity to be able to vaccinate folks in a week or a month or however long."
MU Health Care Executive Director of Pharmacy and Laboratory Services Brad Myers agreed with Humm that it's possible to get the vaccines in arms, however, there would need to be increased resources.
"If we are able to get additional vaccines, we would have to increase our resources that we need to run the clinic and it would take a little bit of redesign," Myers said.
Myers said it all depends on the amount of vaccine supply local health organizations receive.
"If we have vaccine across the state, there is a high likelihood we could meet that July 4th deadline," Myers said. "I feel very confident we would be able to handle an increase in supply."
Lisa Cox, a spokesperson for the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services said the state is committed to vaccinating every willing Missourian as soon as possible.
"Our state will continue ordering vaccine for direct distribution to our community providers, and we look forward to them scaling up the efforts for vaccinating substantially more Missourians as soon as possible," Cox said.
As of Friday, more than 1.7 million total vaccine doses have been administered in Missouri, according to the state's coronavirus vaccine dashboard. On Monday, more than 500,000 Missourians will become vaccine-eligible under the state's Phase 1B Tier 3.
