By JAN LARSON McLAUGHLIN
BG Independent News
One small shot in the arm is the first big stride toward safety for local firefighters who deal with potential COVID patients on a regular basis.
“This is a huge step in battling COVID,” Bowling Green Fire Chief Bill Moorman said Monday afternoon as he prepared to roll up his sleeve for his first dose of the Moderna vaccine at the Wood County Health Department. “This is a big deal.”
The first round of vaccines won’t change the safety measures taken by firefighters and paramedics, Moorman said.
“Everyone will still be wearing masks” and taking other precautions, the fire chief said, since the vaccine isn’t effective until the second dose is administered 28 days after the first.
As of this afternoon, 33 of the city’s 46 firefighters had received the vaccine. The others did not sign up for the initial round, Moorman said.
“Some of them want to wait and see,” and some have health issues, the chief said.
On Monday, Bowling Green firefighter Jeffrey Lammers showed up at the health department for his shot.
“I barely felt it. Did you even put it in?” Lammers asked health department nurse Linda Harris after the shot.
Also there for his first dose of the vaccine was Jeff Griffith, with Troy Township Fire Department and EMS. Griffith said he did not struggle with the decision to get the shot.
“I want to protect my family,” he said.
The vaccines were part of the initial 600 Moderna doses delivered last week to the Wood County Health Department. Weekly shipments of vaccines are expected, though specific delivery dates and dose numbers are unknown.
Wood County has between 5,000 and 6,000 residents who qualify for the top tier to get vaccines first. That tier includes health care workers, emergency responders and people living in congregate medical facilities.
Last week Gov. Mike DeWine announced that educators will be able to get the vaccine in the next tier, in an effort to get schools back to in-person learning.
“We are weeks or months away from when we can move to the general population,” Wood County Health Commissioner Ben Robison said last week. The health department plans to put a self-triage quiz on its website to help people identify when their turn arrives for the vaccine.
An allocation team in the county has been working with the health department to determine how the vaccines should be distributed, using the state’s guidelines. On the team are representatives of local government, senior citizens, emergency management, health care, law enforcement, EMS, long-term care facilities and the media.
“It helps us make smart decisions,” Robison said. “It helps us to make sure we are meeting the most critical needs.”
As more shipments arrive, the Wood County Health Department hopes to make the vaccine easy for local residents to get.
“We want it to be as widely available as we can make it,” Robison said.
Accurate information about vaccines can be found from Wood County Health Department (Coronavirus.WoodCountyHealth.org), the Ohio Department of Health (Coronavirus.Ohio.gov) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (Coronavirus.gov).
