Top MS doctors get 1st COVID vaccines to show they’re safe. ‘Get it while you can.’
The state’s top health officers didn’t even grimace as they received the state’s first COVID-19 vaccinations on camera to help reassure Mississippians that they’re safe and effective.
“Wow,” State Health Officer Dr. Thomas Dobbs said right after his vaccination. “First COVID vaccine.”
Asked how it felt, Dobbs said, “It felt like a butterfly. A little bit of a sting, not bad.”
He was followed in line by state Epidemiologist Dr. Paul Byers, who said, “Alright,” when he got his shot, and Jim Craig, MSDH senior deputy and director of health protection. The three of them wore matching MSDH T-shirts with a logo of the state of Mississippi on front.
Lois Moore, MSDH immunization nurse, administered the shots during a news conference Monday afternoon as part of the nation’s largest vaccination campaign. Directors from University of Mississippi Medical Center and the Public Health Association of Mississippi also received vaccinations.
“Excellent job,” Craig told Moore.
The Pfizer vaccinations require two doses. Dobbs said a second dose is due after three weeks.
The shots can cause some swelling and soreness, with the swelling showing that a person’s immune system is working to fight coronavirus.
Dobbs said he will offer “a blow-by-blow” of how he is doing from the vaccine.
The vaccine comes at a time when cases in Mississippi and around the nation are skyrocketing to the point that hospitals are full or filling up. Cases have continued to spiral, with about 10% of people who catch coronavirus expected to be hospitalized in the near future.
“It’s ugly right now and it’s about to get a whole lot uglier,” Dobbs said. “We will see a whole avalanche of folks hitting the health care system soon, so I just want everybody to understand that we are going to have a rough winter.”
Near the end of the news conference, Dobbs urged Mississippians to get vaccinated.
“There’s going to be more demand than supply, without a doubt,” he said. “If you have the opportunity, you ought to get it while you can.”
Hospitals receive Pfizer vaccine
Dobbs said five hospitals had received vaccine allotments Monday morning, but he did not want to name them for security reasons.
The first approved vaccine for the coronavirus in the United States comes from Pfizer and German company BioNTech. The Food and Drug Administration granted emergency approval Friday for the vaccination, shown in trials to be 95% effective.
Deliveries were expected Monday in all 50 states, with Mississippi receiving an initial 25,000 doses that will go to frontline health-care workers exposed to the virus. Dobbs said he expects on Monday to also start inoculating those in nursing homes and other long-term care settings.
Major medical centers that could store the vaccine at required subzero temperatures received their doses directly.
Moderna vaccine approval expected soon
Approval of the Moderna vaccine is expected to come as early as this week.
Byers said the state hopes to begin receiving the Moderna vaccine next week and initially expects 50,000 doses.
It has also shown in clinical trials to be 95% effective.
