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Grand Rapids Chamber hosts townhall on COVID-19 vaccine

The townhall was from 10 a.m. to 10:45 a.m.

The Grand Rapids Chamber hosted a town hall with the director of the Kent County Health Department and other guests as the possibility of a vaccine in the U.S. gets closer to reality. 

The Food and Drug Administration is considering the authorization of emergency use of the Pfizer vaccine Thursday, Dec. 10. If it's approved, the company has said it could begin shipping out doses within hours. 

"Michigan is expecting somewhere between 84,000 and a couple 100,000 doses within the week after that," said Dr. Adam London of the Kent County Health Department. 

London said it's not clear yet how many doses will end up in West Michigan. But, he said, the first vaccines will go to healthcare workers, those administering the vaccines (i.e. health department staff), first responders and EMS. 

As the vaccine becomes more readily available, London said, it will be expanded out to essential workers like teachers, food supply chain and utility workers. 

The hope is to have the vaccine available to the general public in the spring. 

The townhall ran from 10 a.m. to 10:45 a.m, and also included discussion with Keith Hustak, vice president of advanced practice provider services and operations for Spectrum Health. 

Hustak said area health departments, health systems and other partners have formed the West Michigan COVID-19 Vaccine Collaborative to form plans for vaccine distribution. 

"What we're doing is we're coming together for the betterment of our community," Hustak said. "We certainly learned a lot during the H1N1 pandemic, and we learned that we were kind of tripping over each other as health systems and as health departments."

Hustak and London said communication will be clear about where and when people can get the vaccine to work to achieve herd immunity as quickly as possible. 

London said herd immunity will be achieved when about 65-70% of the community has received the vaccine. 

Sarah K. Willey, an attorney with Miller Johnson, also discussed employer vaccination requirements and mandates, COVID-19 vaccine coverage and other issues as it applies to employer-provided vaccines.

You can watch the townhall here.

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