COVID-19 vaccine arriving in Mississippi this week

The first batch of COVID-19 vaccines will arrive in Mississippi this week, perhaps as early as Monday or Tuesday.

The Food and Drug Administration approved the two-dose Pfizer vaccine for emergency use Friday, triggering the distribution of about 2.9 million doses across the nation. Mississippi will receive enough to vaccinate 25,000 people.

The first to be vaccinated will be front-line physicians and nurses in the state’s hospitals. No. 2 on the list are highly vulnerable individuals in long-term care facilities. About 38% of COVID-19 deaths have occurred in nursing homes in Mississippi, although LTC residents accounted for less than 5% of the state’s cases.

It will be some time before healthy Mississippians will have access to the vaccine, probably spring 2021.

In a public demonstration of the vaccine’s safety, State Health Officer Dr. Thomas Dobbs and State Epidemiologist Dr Paul Byers will be the first to receive the vaccine, and they will get their shots on a live feed.

In a tweet Sunday, Dobbs began to dispel some of the myths about the vaccine. “Myth: The vaccine does not cause infertility,” Dobbs wrote.

COVID raging in MS, but vaccine on the way soon.

Truth: studies show Pfizer vaccine highly effective

Myth: Vaccine does NOT cause infertility

Byers, Craig and I (leaders of MSDH response) will be immunized Day 1 pic.twitter.com/wQNKyiENcD

— thomas dobbs (@TCBPubHealth) December 13, 2020