Vaccine Arrives At SSM Health, First Dose Given Out

COVID-19 history was made at St. Agnes Hospital Wednesday, as the first doses of the new Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine arrived, and the first dose given. Matt Kermgard, an Emergency Medicine physician, was the first frontline caregiver to receive the vaccine.

Dr. Kermgard said “being able to get the vaccine out to our community will be the next step in controlling the spread of this disease and having the state and country open back up and get back to some normalcy.”

The on-going trials of the two-dose vaccine have shown a 95 percent efficacy rate in preventing confirmed COVID-19 after a person receives both doses within 21 days, according to the FDA, which gave the vaccine emergency approval last week. St. Agnes Hospital received about 2,900 doses in its initial shipment, while Waupun Memorial Hospital was set to receive 200.