The Franklin County Health Department (FCHD) held its first vaccine clinic for the general public Saturday, Jan. 30 at the Municipal Auditorium in Union. Presiding Commissioner reports that a total of 1,035 vaccines were administered that day. He noted that Mercy allowed access to their vaccine inventory to supplement the amount of vaccine received by the county. 

According to Angela Hittson, director of FCHD, her office was notified earlier in the week that 975 units of the Pfizer vaccine would be delivered. Her staff immediately began notifying people who had signed up on their online forum.

The FCHD had already been working on vaccinating health care workers and first responders as part of Tier 1 of their vaccination plan. 

To date, according to statistics posted on the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services’ website, 6.2 percent of Franklin Countians have received a vaccine. That compares to 11.6 percent of those in Gasconade County who have been inoculated with at least one dose of the vaccine. The state average is 6.7 percent. That website shows that 2,657 people received vaccines in the county in the last seven days. 

A total of 8,384 people have received at least one dose in Franklin County. Of those 1,901 have received both doses and are considered fully inoculated. 6,481 have received their first dose. Hittson says she has been assured by state officials that there will automatically be vaccines available when the second dose will be needed. 

Hittson told The Republican that she places an order for vaccines with the state on Wednesday. The state then makes a decision on how to allocate the available vaccines. This decision must then be approved at the federal level. It takes until the following Tuesday for Hittson to receive notification of how much vaccine will be sent to her office. 

The Pfizer vaccine can be ordered by the flat which contains 975 doses. The Moderna vaccine is sent in batches of several hundred. 

Hittson says her department can handle administering the Moderna vaccine in its offices. The larger doses of the Pfizer vaccine, are better administered in a larger space at a vaccine clinic. 

Saturday’s vaccine clinic went smoothly, even with a power outage in the morning. It took from seven to 10 minutes from signing in to receiving the vaccine. There was a recommended 15 minute wait afterwards to make sure no adverse reactions developed. 

Brinker said that when someone didn’t show for their scheduled vaccination, calls were immediately placed to the next people on the list.
This ensured that all available vaccines were utilized.