Mosaic leader gives report on vaccination work

By Nate Blackford, Mosaic Medical Center – Maryville president

Since March 2020 and the onset of COVID in our region, I have authored regular articles for this paper.

During that time, we have dealt with many unknowns, witnessed a steep increase in COVID numbers and now we are seeing what appears to be a sustained decrease.  Although we are not out of the woods, the numbers are trending in the right direction and have remained low the past several weeks.  All the while, our caregivers have demonstrated courage, resilience, and leadership.  I am proud of our team.

Last Friday, the State of Missouri made its supply of COVID-19 vaccine available to all Missouri citizens who are of age, 16 and up for Pfizer and 18 and up for Moderna. Mosaic Medical Center – Maryville believes strongly that widespread use of the COVID-19 vaccine is essential to help us get past this pandemic.

We, along with Northwest Missouri State University and the Nodaway County Health Department, have successfully hosted 11 mass vaccine events and administered over 7,900 doses of the vaccine in the past three months.  Our efforts have been focused on protecting our friends, family, and neighbors against the COVID-19 virus.

On Monday of this week, via our Facebook page, we announced that April 14 and April 21 would be our last mass vaccine events offering first doses of the vaccine, as the demand for the vaccine has started to decrease.  After these two events, we will only provide second doses at our community events on April 28, May 5, and May 12.

If you have not already received your vaccine and would like to do so, please take a few moments to register at mymlc.com/vaccine before this opportunity goes away. If you are not comfortable with or do not have access to a computer, please call Nodaway County Health Department at 660.562.2755.

At the same time we are ending our mass vaccine clinics, we are building out our processes to be able to offer the vaccine via our primary care clinics and walk-in clinic in the near future.  More details to come on that opportunity soon.

I again want to thank you, our community, for your support.  It has been a long and challenging 13 months.  But together we are finding our way through it.