Spectrum Health Lakeland President Loren Hamel expects it will be some months before the general population will have a chance to be vaccinated against COVID-19. He said on Friday the Spectrum Health system is waiting on its first batch of vaccine, and it’s not going to be large.
“A week of two ago, we were pretty optimistic that we might get 30,000 doses,” Hamel said. “We’ve now been told we’re going to get 995 doses. We have freezers big enough for hundreds of thousands of doses.”
That’s for the whole Spectrum Health System across 16 counties. However, Spectrum Health Lakeland says it will continue to get additional doses regularly throughout the next few months. Hamel said he expects the vaccine will be safe, and he went over who will be top priority.
“That is going to start with healthcare providers in the highest risk areas, as well as nursing home residents, and the initial allotment won’t nearly cover that amount of employees, nor the residents of all the nursing homes in Berrien County, Kent County, and the 16 counties that Spectrum Health serves.”
Hamel added he expects there will be plenty of people who could get the vaccine but will turn it down, and there will also be plenty who want the vaccine but won’t be able to get it for a while. Berrien County Health Officer Nicki Britten said she expects some healthcare workers will start getting the vaccine this month into next month. She noted there will be plenty to do for some months to come, and predicted things will be a bit messy through early summer.
