State's first mass COVID vaccination clinic is held in Poplar Bluff

Missouri National Guard assists in handling the event in southeast Missouri, nearly 2,000 Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine doses provided by the state

Even with some hiccups, the first mass vaccination clinic held in the state provided nearly 2,000 Pfizer COVID-19 vaccines Friday.

Cars started lining up at 5:45 a.m. outside the former Hydro Adventures water park for the 9 a.m. event, Col. Russel Kohl with the Missouri National Guard said.

This was the first mass vaccination clinic Missouri has held after a directive from Gov. Mike Parson came out 10 days ago and the first the National Guard has aided with.

Kohl said as of 3 p.m., 830 vehicles had gone through the drive-up clinic and over 1,300 vaccines had been administered. There were 48 cars in line when the guard started showing up at 7 a.m., he added.

The Butler County Health Department received an allotment of 1,950 doses to use as part of the clinic.

Kohl said Poplar Bluff was the first of 27 locations around the state to host a mass vaccination clinic in the next three weeks.

As a result, Poplar Bluff served as something of a test run for the guard to see how things went.

According to earlier reports, the traffic was backed up two miles at some points Friday morning.

The Missouri State Highway Patrol and Poplar Bluff Police Department aided with directing traffic and helping clear up congestion.

"With this being the first in the nation, from my understanding, I think everybody was caught a little off guard as far as preparation," Police Chief Danny Whiteley said. "We've had traffic jammed probably starting at 8:30 a.m. If it wasn't for the state patrol, we would have been in a worse mess than what we were. I certainly want to thank them for responding and, of course, my department. We hadn't been advised that we needed additional people."

Vehicles lined up around 8:15 a.m. Friday, ahead of a mass vaccination clinic outside the former Hydro Adventures water park in Poplar Bluff.Paul Davis ~ Daily American Republic

Kohl said the National Guard will take what they learned Friday to adjust going forward.

"What works on PowerPoint, we have expanded dramatically today," he said. "In the initial plan, there was three cars per lane. We've actually been able to up that ... we're running six to seven cars per lane."

The National Guard will be back in three weeks for another vaccination clinic.

Kohl said that is when those who received their vaccines Friday will need to come back to receive the second dose. However, he also expects to be able to administer first doses of the vaccine at that event as well.

They used the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, he said, which requires subfreezing temperatures to be stored for an extended period of time.

"With the number of vehicles moving through here, storage is not necessarily an issue for us," he said. "The great aspect of these mass vaccination events are just part of a three legged stool -- physician offices, hospitals, your local public health agencies -- they are delivering vaccines to Missouri citizens across the state and we don't want to detract from that at all.

"There's the federal pharmacy program where pharmacies are actually being able to provide vaccines and then these mass vaccination programs where the National Guard assists local authorities to do it. The great thing about those three legs, and us using Pfizer in this program, is we're freeing up those Moderna vaccines that are specifically useful in those smaller settings like a physician's office."

Bob and Linda Montgomery, both 82, went out to receive the vaccine Friday afternoon.

Bob said both were already on the list at the health department, but when they received the opportunity to get it sooner through the vaccination clinic, they decided to go with that option. They're ready to get back to some kind of normalcy.

Linda said they didn't have any concerns about getting the vaccine at this point.

After receiving the vaccine, people needed to sit in their cars for 15 minutes for observation in case of a reaction. Kohl said the National Guard would not release whether anybody did have a reaction.

Kohl said the response from Butler County agencies and residents to this event was outstanding to see.

"Any time folks show up in uniform, there's always a little bit of nervousness," Kohl said. "I just want to thank the folks in Butler County for the hospitality that everybody has shown across all of the organizations. The Butler County Health Department has knocked it out of the park today, all of the agencies have, and we're just privileged to be able to support them and make this happen."