Vaccines are plentiful, as demand diminishes
Mar. 31—Competition is in the air as Covid-19 vaccine becomes more and more available in West Virginia.
Newly-stocked with one serum or another, various pharmacies have taken to social media, encouraging individuals to call for appointments, and vaccine shipments are expected to arrive at local Walmart stores sooner rather than later.
County health departments are also expanding vaccination clinics and urging people who've long languished on waiting lists to once again call their offices directly to make an appointment.
Residents of Monroe County are being told online to call their health department at 304-772-3064 to schedule an appointment, while Greenbrier County is grappling with a diminishing demand for vaccinations at the same time that supplies are ramping up.
"We have more vaccines available this week than ever before," Greenbrier health officials reported to the Greater Greenbrier Covid-19 Task Force on Tuesday, encouraging people who've been on a waiting list for longer than three weeks to call the health department office in Fairlea at 304-645-1787.
"We will get you vaccinated," Greenbrier officials promised via the task force.
While Greenbrier County residents will be given priority at those clinics, any West Virginia resident in need of a vaccination can make an appointment as long as shots are available. At this point, half of the eligible Greenbrier population has had at least one shot of vaccine, and two clinics are being conducted by the health department at the State Fairgrounds this week — one on Wednesday and the other on Thursday.
Vaccines are currently limited to people ages 16 and up because clinical trials are still underway to evaluate how effective and safe the products are for children.
A vaccine finder website — www.vaccinefinder.org — is now available to connect individuals with vaccines at all local sources, including pharmacies, according to the task force.
And while West Virginia's virus cases have crept up over the past several weeks, neither Greenbrier nor Monroe has seen recently the significant outbreaks that once plagued the region.
County health department numbers, which are widely acknowledged to be more current and, thus, more accurate than state Department of Health and Human Resources data, show Monroe with 19 active cases at the beginning of this week (DHHR reported 28), and Greenbrier with 36 active cases (reported at the state level as 76).
According to state Sen. Stephen Baldwin, D-Greenbrier, chair of the task force, a question recently raised at a meeting asked how a group might capture lessons learned from the pandemic for use in a future crisis. A decision was made that the task force should tackle that task,
"Once the dust settles, we will consolidate that information from all of our partners and share it widely," Baldwin reported. "This 'community response' effort will help us deal with future emergencies."
— Email: talvey@register-herald.com
