KANSAS CITY, Mo. — A COVID-19 vaccine is likely to be available within the next month or two, according to experts, but not just anyone will be able to receive it at first. Regardless, Missouri and Kansas leaders plan to make the vaccine available at no cost to residents.
Dr. Randall Williams, director of the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services, said he expects the first doses of the vaccine could be available in the state by late November or early December.
But because the initial supply will be limited, it won't be available to everyone. The same goes for Kansas.
Two local nursing students, Sarah Pierle and Jenna Tartaglia, said they have seen the effects of the virus firsthand. And that’s why they will get vaccinated as soon as it's an option.
"Since we're on the COVID unit, we saw a lot of those patients and what they were suffering through,” Pierle said, “and I don't think I would just get it for me, I would get it for all the people around me, too, to keep others safe.”
In Missouri, health care workers, especially those at long-term care facilities, will receive the vaccine first. Next, first responders, essential workers and those with certain pre-existing conditions would be eligible as parts of phases one and two.
The shot would not be available to the general public until the third phase, which is estimated to begin in April.
Similarly, Kansas health care workers would be the first eligible, followed by essential workers and those with certain pre-existing conditions, which include being 65 years old and older or living in long-term care facilities. In Phase Two, vaccines would be available to the public. Kansas would then shift to a routine public health strategy in Phase 3.
As the phases progress, vaccines will be available in more places, too, from health departments to doctors' offices, pharmacies, and eventually mobile clinics.
Tartaglia said because of being in her 20s and not having any underlying health conditions, she feels she is in a “good group” to see if there are any side effects to a vaccine.
But the possibility of side effects with a vaccine that's been developed so quickly has some, like Brad English, skeptical.
"I will get one, as long as the health people, the doctors and everybody, believes in it," English said.
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Similarly, Eddie Fromm said he would want to wait until “most doctors” give approval for a vaccine.
"I don't want to be putting anything in my body that doesn't feel safe," Fromm said.
Another woman, Rebecca Reyes, also said she would want to see a study and a trial period to feel safer getting a vaccine.
While data isn't yet available to the public, trials are underway for multiple companies.
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For some, Thomas Beaver among them, these options that can't come soon enough.
"I think if [we] find a vaccine that could help cure people, or not cure but keep them immune, it would create a better community life for everyone around us,” Beaver said, “and we could start hanging out more and being with each other.”
Because of the number of vaccine trials in motion, it’s unclear which vaccines will be available in Kansas and Missouri. And some require more than one dose.
Williams also said children and pregnant women will not be able to receive a vaccine, because its safety hasn't been tested in those populations.
