North Michigan News

Initial doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine are now available in Michigan, with an estimated 84,000 doses arriving the week of December 21 and another 60,000 expected to arrive the week of December 28, according to Bridge Michigan.

While frontline hospital workers and first responders are expected to have access to the vaccine first, health officials are still trying to decide the order in which the vaccine will be administered to everyone else.

Counties will be rationing vaccine doses while the supplies are limited, but despite months of planning, there are still more questions than answers in places like Kent County.

“You make multiple plans and try to anticipate every contingency, and that’s kind of where we are at right now,” Mary Wisinski, immunization program supervisor for the Kent County Health Department, told Bridge Michigan.

Residents of long-term care facilities account for more than one-third of coronavirus deaths in Michigan, according to Michigan.gov, and this will be the second group to have access to the vaccine.

Michigan.gov's state guidelines suggest that health care workers who risk exposure to coronavirus, like dentists or home health care workers, should be third in line for the vaccine. But when choosing exactly how to phase in essential workers, these decisions become more difficult.

“I think some people will feel they should be [vaccinated] before somebody else,... and it’s going to raise some questions in the community,” Jerry Messana, Health Officer with the Marquette County Health Department, told the Bridge Michigan. “If we have 1,200 teachers and staff and only 150 vaccines, it might make sense to get the public works and snowplow drivers done first.”

Bob Lorinser, Medical Director for four Upper Peninsula health departments covering ten counties, believes that people are aware of the limited amount of vaccines and most are willing to wait their turn.

"I’m not hearing people say firefighters are more important than police or people in food or water or power," Lorinser told Bridge Michigan. “I think people just want to know: When is my turn?”

The general public, aged 16 to 64, with underlying conditions that put them at high risk of contracting the coronavirus and and other healthy individuals in the same age range, may be some of the last people to gain access to vaccinations, according to Bridge Michigan.