BY NICOLE ASBURY
Roughly 2,500 Douglas County residents are expected to receive their first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine Wednesday at a public vaccine clinic at the Douglas County Fairgrounds — the largest drive-thru clinic to date in the county.
In a Facebook post Wednesday afternoon, Public Health noted it had delivered 1,159 doses by 3:30 p.m. and would stay late to get through all of the doses.
"We will stay here until all the vaccine is gone," Director Dan Partridge said in a quote in the post.
Another 2,200 Douglas County residents who qualify under Phase 2 of Kansas’ vaccine distribution plan are expected to receive their second dose of the vaccine Friday, said George Diepenbrock, a spokesman for Lawrence-Douglas County Public Health.
Furthermore, Douglas County will have a free COVID-19 handout test event this weekend. Participants can pick up a test to take home. The event will take place 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday at the Merc Co-Op parking lot in Lawrence.
On Tuesday night, Douglas County health officials provided more information regarding potential side effects of the COVID-19 vaccine during a health equity forum, coordinated by Lawrence-Douglas County Public Health.
The panel, moderated by county health equity planner Alex Kimball Williams, provided residents with more answers from local experts about how individuals are responding to the vaccine and why Douglas County is doing a phased vaccine roll out.
Younger people have had more robust side effects to the COVID-19 vaccine due to the immune system at each age, said Jennifer Schrimsher, an infectious disease expert at Lawrence-Douglas County Public Health.
“That does not mean that if you don’t have a reaction or don’t get chills or soreness from the vaccine that it didn’t work,” Schrimsher said. “That’s not at all what I want to convey. Everybody’s body is a bit different.”
The side effects are different in different populations, said Tiffany Lewis, chief operations officer at the Heartland Community Health Center. More people so far have had side effects after receiving the second shot of the Moderna and Pfizer vaccine. Some individuals haven’t had any side effects at all.
After receiving the COVID-19 vaccine, individuals will have an immune response within 14 days.
There isn’t a set plan for when people may potentially need to get re-vaccinated, Schrimsher said.
“We know that it’s at least four months [of immunity],” Shrimsher said. “We think it’s going to be a year — at least a year — but I think every vaccine might be a bit different.”
As of Wednesday, Douglas County was administering the Moderna and Pfizer vaccines — the two vaccines approved through an emergency authorization order from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Also Wednesday, the FDA announced a one-shot vaccine developed by Johnson & Johnson was found to be safe and effective during its review.
Both the vaccines developed by Moderna and Pfizer round out to have about a 95% efficacy after both doses are administered, said Brian Bradfield, associate vice president of ancillary services at Lawrence-Douglas County Public Health.
The efficacy rate determines how well an immune system can be developed and fight off the disease. The Johnson & Johnson one-dose vaccine was projected as of Tuesday night to have a 66% efficacy rate, Bradfield said.
Douglas County is currently in Phase 2 of Kansas’ vaccine distribution plan, which prioritizes senior citizens, state-designated essential employees and those in communal living situations. Bradfield said around 40% of the vaccines received each week under Phase 2 go toward those 65 and older in the county — roughly 800 to 840 patients each week.
Those residents are pulled randomly from the county’s vaccine interest form, which residents can fill out via dgcoks.org/vaccineinterestform. The form allows county health officials to contact interested individuals to schedule an appointment.
Individuals can confirm their form was recorded by searching for it here. The list of names is updated every weekday at 11 a.m.
Senior citizens who may require additional assistance filling out their vaccination form can contact the county’s Senior Resource Center via phone at 785-842-0543.
Reach reporter Nicole Asbury at eudoratimes@gmail.com.
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