Indiana teachers will soon be able to get the COVID-19 vaccine, but how exactly they’ll be able to do that is complicated. “We received word from the federal government that they were going to provide doses to the federal pharmacy program for teachers to become prioritized across the country, obviously, including here in the State of Indiana,” Governor Holcomb said during Wednesday’s COVID-19 press conference.
That means teachers under 50 will be able to get the vaccine at Meijer, Kroger, and Walmart, but not at the vaccination clinics set up by local health departments. Additionally, teachers would have to sign up using those pharmacies’ individual systems, rather than the state’s, according to Indiana Department of Health Chief Medical Officer Dr. Lindsay Weaver. “We’re still learning more information about exactly how this is going to work for our teachers here in Indiana,” she added.
While the federal government is expanding vaccine eligibility to teachers, they’re still not eligible under Indiana’s guidelines. Holcomb said he’s concerned that prioritizing teachers could push out individuals who are more at risk. “My other concern is that we don’t have sight or eyes on real-time data,” he said. “And we’re trying to control spread in our counties, and we’ve put a lot of effort in over the last year to stand up a system that’s almost real-time reporting on this virus. And this just delays that. There’s some information delay, so we’re kind of back in the fog.”
Teachers 50 and older are fully eligible to get the shot at any vaccination clinic in the state.
