KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Both Kansas and Missouri are working around the clock to figure out how to alert people on when it's their turn to get the COVID-19 vaccine.
A vaccine has not been approved by the FDA yet, but the agency will be discussing and possibly approving the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine on Thursday.
The process of when people will get the vaccine is a question health leaders say is tough to answer.
"The state health departments, both Kansas and Missouri, are working around the clock pretty much every day to try to figure out the best way to communicate to the public about when it will be their turn," Dr. Catherine Satterwhite, Regional Health Administrator for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, said.
Health officials are still in the development stages of how the general public will be notified.
"You will know, there will be media outreach. Your providers will be informed. I think we can already see right now that the world is being flooded with vaccine information. But, it will be more specific and you will have visibility as who is eligible when," Satterwhite said.
On the Missouri side, there is talk about how to get teachers vaccinated.
"We will just have those people go to their health departments, FQHCs, their local doctor, pharmacies and they will identify themselves as one of those groups and be vaccinated," Dr. Randall Williams, Director of Missouri Department of Health & Senior Services, said.
Then, he discussed on Friday about the elderly in the first phase.
"You will just go to your pharmacist and say I am over 65. I am in the three million people, I want to get a vaccine," Williams said.
Missouri's plan hopes to start vaccinating the general public in the spring. The Kansas Department of Health and Environmenthas on their website that "vaccine for the general public is not anticipated until late spring/early summer."
