SOUTHERN ORE.- COVID-19 vaccinations continue to roll out across the state. Today, as part of the next step in the rollout, some southern Oregon first responders got the shot to protect themselves and the community.
“The five of us have had no issues! It was right to the arm and no stiffness, no problems. Knock on wood yet!,” said Illinois Valley Fire Chief John Holmes.
Some at the Illinois Valley and Medford Fire Departments got their first COVID-19 vaccine doses this week.
“Yesterday was the first opportunity that became available and we were able to process a first round for some of our folks that were on duty,” Medford Fire’s Deputy Chief of Operations Bryan Baumgartner said. Baum Both departments say they have been anticipating this step in the vaccine roll out but not this soon.
“And it started narrowing down ‘hey, its now showed up, Asante and Providence Medical centers received the first priority doses’, so we knew, okay, we are going to be close here,” Baumgartner explained.
“Just kind of going through the process alphabetically, we’ve got approximately fifteen of our members who are going to be taking the vaccine. It was just the first five today who went through the process,” Holmes said. Because of the possible side effects of the vaccine, each department is mindful of who gets the shot and when.
“One of us goes down, you’re losing a lot of the staff with one to two people going down so yes, we are staggering it,” Holmes explained.
“It’s already staggered just due to our general work processes and scheduling,” Baumgartner said.
According to Public Health Officer Dr. Jim Shames with Jackson County, these vaccinations are on track for what the o-ha has planned for roll out.
“I think we are really only talking about a week or two difference between one particular group getting a vaccine or another group that feels as if they should be next. We are going to try to make everybody be next as quickly as we can,” he explained.
But he says the plans health officials made depend on willingness to get the vaccine, something they just are not seeing.
“Some of the strategies that were put forth to create that security bubble, we are going to run into some difficulties because we are seeing more lack of vaccine acceptance and lack of vaccine trust than we were hoping for,” Dr. Shames said.
Dr. Shames hopes public figures getting the vaccine, like fire departments and law enforcement, can help change attitudes toward the vaccine.
“I do think those are important messages we need to get out,” Dr. Shames said. Both departments say the decision to get the vaccine was made with their family and community’s safety in mind.
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