With people desperate for the vaccine and the line growing as state eligibility opens up, health officials in the greater Lansing area are saying the best COVID-19 vaccine is the first one you can get.
"We just need to get people vaccinated as quickly as we can," Ingham County Health Officer Linda Vail said.
As of Tuesday, only Ingham and Jackson counties had received doses of all three approved vaccines.
There are still far fewer doses of Johnson and Johnson vaccine available than the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines that have been circulating since December.
"We did get a very substantial shipment of J&J vaccine last week so those numbers are in there. And, honestly, the planning has to happen when a new vaccine lands on you to get that new vaccine into the clinics and stuff like that," Vail said.
Dorothy Hughes Engleman received both doses of the Pfizer vaccine from the Ingham County vaccination center at the Michigan State University Pavilion in February and says she felt relief for the first time in almost a year.
“Even after just getting the appointment set, I felt like OK I have bricks on my shoulders instead of cinder blocks. Then, after the first dose I felt a little better. Then, after the second dose it was like OK the world is opening up again with you know being careful,” Engleman said.
She hopes everyone can soon share in her relief.
“Get whatever vaccine you can get, as soon as you can. Don’t say, "Oh, I only want the Pfizer' or 'I only want the Moderna' or 'I want to wait for the one-shot.' Please get vaccinated as soon as possible because what you’re doing is vaccinating all of us and that’s so important,” Engleman said.
New confirmed case numbers across our area were up 72.9 percent week over week according to state coronavirus reporting.
As vaccinations continue, Vail says the goal for health officials in Ingham County is to drive COVID-19 positivity rates from the 5 to 6 percent range we've been seeing to below 3 percent.
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