Hospitals across Mississippi are administering the first coronavirus vaccines to front-line healthcare workers caring for COVID-19 patients. But there are not enough doses for every hospital in the state. State Health Officer Dr. Thomas Dobbs says Mississippi's original allocation of 25,000 doses of the Pfizer vaccine was lower than anticipated. "So we had to switch some hospitals off of Pfizer to Moderna," says Dr. Dobbs. "A lot of the hospitals are thankful for that because the storage requirements for the Moderna are so much more simple. So it puts us a few days behind for some locations, but with some gains in ease of use. We'll get it out as quickly as we can."
This was the first week of distribution of a vaccine. State Epidemiologist Dr. Paul Byers says it is not known yet how many doses the state will receive the Moderna vaccine and additional rounds of the Pfizer vaccine. "We don't have a clear picture of what the allocations are going to look like down the road, but we do expect for at least the next few weeks we should be getting some weekly allocations," says Dr. Byers. " What the actual number is, we don't know yet until we get them."
Studies of the Moderna vaccine found it to be 94% effective in preventing COVID-19, and health officials say the data looks very promising.
Distribution of the Moderna vaccine will be conducted by McKesson, a pharmaceutical company with distribution centers based in north Mississippi.
