Baptist Memorial Hospital – Golden Triangle set to receive 500 doses of the COVID-19 vaccine

COLUMBUS, MISS. (WCBI) – As advisors to the Food and Drug Administration met to discuss approving Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine Thursday, hospitals in North Mississippi already had plans in place as to how they will distribute their share of the state’s 25,000 doses of the vaccine.

“There’s a lot of unknowns but I also know that we will have a lot more serious illnesses and a lot more deaths from COVID-19 than we will from the vaccine,” says Johnny Judson, RN, the employee health nurse for Baptist Memorial Hospital – Golden Triangle.

For Baptist Memorial, they will be getting maybe the most important delivery of the year exactly one week before Christmas.

500 doses of the COVID-19 vaccine.

“It’s going to be offered to 100 percent of the employees but everybody will have the decision to make,” Judson says. “Yay or nay whether they want to take it.”

Judson says they plan to start administering those vaccines to their staff on Decembe 19.

“A close, high-risk contact with the COVID-19 population, those are the ones we are targeting first,” Judson says.

OCH Regional Medical Center in Starkville expects to get 110 doses of the COVID-19 vaccine by the end of the year. They say it could be available to the public by the spring of 2021.

The question then becomes how comfortable people will be taking that vaccine.

“As long as they get all the kinks out 100 percent, I’ll take it,” says Columbus resident Mary Jones.

“I think we should have policies in place that say you need to have this vaccine,” says Paul Gary, who works in Columbus.

“I’m tired of these masks for one thing,” says Caledonia resident Travis Morrow, also in favor of taking the vaccine. “I’m ready to get over this stuff.”

However, Judson says that this vaccine is just part of the equation for stopping the coronavirus.

“I don’t think the vaccine is going to take the place of a mask until the number of cases go down,” he says.

Even with a vaccine available, Judson stressed that it is vital for everyone to continue social distancing, washing their hands and wearing their masks.

“If everybody do their part, we will make it through this together,” Judson says.

Judson says it is still too early in the process for him to predict when Baptist Memorial might have a vaccine available to the public. OCH has cautioned that the vaccine might not be available for young children until more studies are done.