South Dakota is one of the top states for COVID-19 vaccine distribution. According to the New York Times,?5.5% of the state’s population has been?vaccinated in less than a month.?The state Secretary of Health and leaders from Sanford and Avera answered questions?about the vaccines?during a Sioux Falls Downtown Rotary meeting.?
Dr. David Basel is Vice President of Clinical Quality for Avera Medical Group.?He says it normally takes?up to two years to begin production once a vaccine is proven?effective.?That’s why the federal government instituted Operation Warp Speed.?
“The big gamble that Operation Warp Speed took is we said, look, we’ve?gotta?take this chance that one of these six or seven vaccines at least is going to be successful, so we’re going to pay all seven of them to start production now, and we hope that then at least one of them is?gonna?prove out. And will have vaccine ready to go.???
Dr. Basel says that the gamble?paid?off because both the Pfizer and?Moderna?vaccines are 95% effective against COVID.??
Secretary of Health Kim?Malsam-Rysdon?says widespread vaccinations will help people safely return?to normal activities.??
“At the state level our goal is to vaccinate at least 60% of the adult population. We definitely hope to exceed that, and if we get to that point combined with folks that have had COVID then we should start to see that herd immunity level really hit South Dakota and?help us kind of have that normalcy back.”?
Malsam-Rysdon?says the weekly amount of vaccines the state receives is determined at the federal level. The more vaccines it receives, the faster the state can move through each phase of distribution.??
As of Monday morning, 38-thousand 360?South Dakotans?have received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine.??
-Contact SDPB reporter Jackie Hendry by email.
