Right to bare arms exercised in Cassville, Monett
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In left photo, above, Terry Purdom, medical assistant for Access Family Care, vaccinates Kenneth Holcom, of Cape Fair, last Thursday at a drive-through COVID-19 clinic in Cassville.
In right photo, above, Dr. Lisa Roark, of Roark Family Health in Cassville, inoculates the driver of a vehicle.
In right photo, above, Dr. Lisa Roark, of Roark Family Health in Cassville, inoculates the driver of a vehicle.
March 10, 2021
Sheila Harris
Optimism prevailed Thursday, March 4, as area residents lined up on City Park Road in Cassville to receive their first dose of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine. The two-day, drive-through vaccination clinic was a cooperative community effort between the Barry County Health Department, Access Family Care, Roark Family Health, the Barry County Office of Emergency Management, Mercy EMS personnel and the City of Cassville.
Health department administrator Roger Brock said 1,170 doses of the Pfizer vaccine were scheduled to be administered during the two-day event, which continued through Friday, March 5. Prior appointments were required in order to receive the vaccine. All time slots were soon filled.
According to Emergency Management director, David Compton, many recipients of the vaccine had previously made appointments for a March 9 vaccination event scheduled to take place in Monett, but when the Barry County Health Department organized the rather impromptu drive-through event in Cassville after receiving additional doses of vaccine from the state, those same residents opted to take the earlier vaccine in Cassville instead of waiting for Monett’s clinic.
“It left us short on people registered for the March 9 Monett event,” Compton said. “We had 1,000 Pfizer vaccines available, with only about 100 registrants by Saturday, March 6. We sent out an immediate press release to let people know we had plenty of vaccine available, and the numbers came up.”
Compton stated Wednesday morning that 256 people were vaccinated at the drive-through clinic in Monett on Tuesday.
“People came from as far as Branson, Springfield and even St. Louis to receive a vaccination,” Compton said.
According to Compton, another clinic is planned at the Monett City Park Casino today (Wednesday), where they plan to administer an additional 900 vaccinations.
On March 15, a third tier of the population will be eligible to take the vaccination, a tier which will include various sectors of the work force, including educators and food production personnel, among many others. Compton said plans are in the works for another mass vaccination clinic for that group as well.
On the sunny, mild Thursday at Cassville’s drive-through clinic last week, Dr. Lisa Roark, of Roark Family Health, deftly inoculated the drivers in a steady stream of vehicles working their way through her line.
“With spring in the air and COVID vaccines more readily available, I suddenly feel like there’s hope for tomorrow,” she said.
It was a sentiment common among everyone who participated in the clinic, prevalent most of all in those who bared their shoulders for the needle.
While Dr. Roark provided hope to the drivers in one lane, RN Carol Landstad, of the Barry County Health Department, vaccinated passengers on the opposite side of vehicles.
In a second drive-through lane, Access Family Care employees, Marsha Davidson and medical assistant Terry Purdom vaccinated another set of drivers and passengers.
The carefully-orchestrated event included traffic directors, registrars, vaccine-drawers, providers, and emergency personnel who kept their eye on vaccine recipients for proscribed amounts of time in case there were adverse reactions.
There were not any, David Compton said.
Per a March 3 situational update for Barry County, 9.5 percent of the population had been vaccinated.
Sheila Harris
Optimism prevailed Thursday, March 4, as area residents lined up on City Park Road in Cassville to receive their first dose of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine. The two-day, drive-through vaccination clinic was a cooperative community effort between the Barry County Health Department, Access Family Care, Roark Family Health, the Barry County Office of Emergency Management, Mercy EMS personnel and the City of Cassville.
Health department administrator Roger Brock said 1,170 doses of the Pfizer vaccine were scheduled to be administered during the two-day event, which continued through Friday, March 5. Prior appointments were required in order to receive the vaccine. All time slots were soon filled.
According to Emergency Management director, David Compton, many recipients of the vaccine had previously made appointments for a March 9 vaccination event scheduled to take place in Monett, but when the Barry County Health Department organized the rather impromptu drive-through event in Cassville after receiving additional doses of vaccine from the state, those same residents opted to take the earlier vaccine in Cassville instead of waiting for Monett’s clinic.
“It left us short on people registered for the March 9 Monett event,” Compton said. “We had 1,000 Pfizer vaccines available, with only about 100 registrants by Saturday, March 6. We sent out an immediate press release to let people know we had plenty of vaccine available, and the numbers came up.”
Compton stated Wednesday morning that 256 people were vaccinated at the drive-through clinic in Monett on Tuesday.
“People came from as far as Branson, Springfield and even St. Louis to receive a vaccination,” Compton said.
According to Compton, another clinic is planned at the Monett City Park Casino today (Wednesday), where they plan to administer an additional 900 vaccinations.
On March 15, a third tier of the population will be eligible to take the vaccination, a tier which will include various sectors of the work force, including educators and food production personnel, among many others. Compton said plans are in the works for another mass vaccination clinic for that group as well.
On the sunny, mild Thursday at Cassville’s drive-through clinic last week, Dr. Lisa Roark, of Roark Family Health, deftly inoculated the drivers in a steady stream of vehicles working their way through her line.
“With spring in the air and COVID vaccines more readily available, I suddenly feel like there’s hope for tomorrow,” she said.
It was a sentiment common among everyone who participated in the clinic, prevalent most of all in those who bared their shoulders for the needle.
While Dr. Roark provided hope to the drivers in one lane, RN Carol Landstad, of the Barry County Health Department, vaccinated passengers on the opposite side of vehicles.
In a second drive-through lane, Access Family Care employees, Marsha Davidson and medical assistant Terry Purdom vaccinated another set of drivers and passengers.
The carefully-orchestrated event included traffic directors, registrars, vaccine-drawers, providers, and emergency personnel who kept their eye on vaccine recipients for proscribed amounts of time in case there were adverse reactions.
There were not any, David Compton said.
Per a March 3 situational update for Barry County, 9.5 percent of the population had been vaccinated.
