JACKSON, Wyo. — In a speech last week, President Biden announced that the United States would have enough vaccine supply for every adult in America by the end of May.
Rachael Wheeler, a Public Health Response Coordinator at Teton County Health Department (TCHD) explained that as TCHD shifts into phase 1c, May is a certainly a realistic target for the community.
“I believe that by the end of May every [adult] who wants a vaccine will have at least one dose,” said Wheeler.
When vaccine rollout began in December, the pace at which doses were being administered was quite daunting. But now with more community members eligible, demand for the vaccine has grown, and TCHD is kicking vaccine rollout into high gear.
“Early on in the process when we first got our shipments of the vaccine in mid-December, we definitely did not see a lot of doses. In February we saw more. As of right now, our March allocation is 8,000 doses. Currently, our plan is to get all those 8,000 doses out this month,” said Wheeler.
As of right now, vaccination clinics in Jackson are limited to the TCHD clinic and St. John’s Hospital. But in the next couple of months, residents will see that more clinic locations will become available.
“We are working with all of our local partners and the state to get more clinics and healthcare facilities registered to be able to distribute the COVID vaccine without wasting any doses,” said Wheeler. ” We are also going to start having our pharmacies who have been approved to distribute the vaccine, assist us in the centers.”
Regardless of having just two locations in town, TCHD and St. John’s have been successfully administering doses in large quantities and in a timely fashion.
“Right now we have over 5600 people on the [registration] list and we are able to give out almost 1400 doses of the vaccine each week. Our clinic and St. John’s clinic have a really great system, no doses are wasted. We don’t want something so precious to be wasted as people maybe heard [is occurring] in other areas of the country. At the end of the month we may do more of a much larger event to use the last of our doses,” said Wheeler.
Wheeler also dissolved any concerns surrounding vaccine rollout in Teton County and whether or not there will be enough people to actually administer the doses available.
“We are working with the state to see if a strike team or a separate clinic would be possible to get more doses out not only to our community members but then to accommodate the surge in seasonal workers that are expected by the end of May or June.”
In terms of when the general population will be eligible to receive the vaccine, Wheeler believes that April is a realistic prospect.
“We believe that most likely we will be able to open to our general population in April at the latest, which is really exciting,” said Wheeler.
While children are not yet eligible to receive any of the vaccines available, herd immunity will become a reality when 70-80 percent of the community is vaccinated. As the distribution pace increases in Jackson, immunity is on the horizon for the community.
“We are excited with the Biden Administration that they were able to move up the timeline for when every American would be able to receive a vaccine and we are working to make sure that we are supporting that effort as much as we can,” said Wheeler.
TCHD continues to hire more people to staff the clinics and if people are interested they can enter themselves on the volunteer interest form.Â
