More than 33,000 Hoosiers had gotten their first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine as of Tuesday morning, and thousands more are expected to get it each day. During Tuesday’s COVID-19 briefing, Indiana Department of Health Chief Medical Officer Dr. Lindsay Weaver said the state received 55,000 doses of the Pfizer vaccine on Friday and another 39,000 on Monday.
On top of that, Indiana’s first shipment of the Moderna vaccine arrived in Hammond on Monday, with more expected Wednesday or Thursday. “Think about that,” Weaver said. “In just a week’s time, we have received not one, but two vaccines to help protect Hoosiers from this disease. It truly is the hope that we all need.”
Weaver said residents of long-term care facilities will start getting vaccinated next Monday. Up until now, the vaccine has been limited to health care workers in direct contact with the most vulnerable populations, but Weaver said eligibility will continue to expand to all of Indiana’s 400,000 health care professionals as more vaccine becomes available. State officials are reviewing the CDC’s recommendations to decide who gets it after that.
For those who may still be concerned about the vaccine’s safety, Weaver encouraged them to look to the leaders in science and medicine. “You have thousands of people who are scientists,” she said. “They have gone to school for a really, really long time, to know how to really just dive into scientific evidence. And they have all done that, and they are running to get the vaccine. I mean, literally running, saying that this is the best Christmas they’ve ever had.”
But Dr. Weaver warned that the vaccine will remain a scarce resource for a really long time, and said the state has had to work with hospitals to adjust plans, as allocations change from initial expectations.
