Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear received the first dose of the Moderna vaccine publicly Tuesday morning.
First Lady Britainy Beshear, Supreme Court Chief Justice John Minton, Senate President Robert Stivers, Speaker of the House David Osborne, Executive Cabinet Secretary J. Michael Brown, Commissioner of the Department for Public Health Steven Stack and Michelle Searcy of the Franklin County Health Department also received the vaccine.
The point of getting the vaccines publicly was to demonstrate confidence in them, Stack said.
“I think it’s very important for all Kentuckians to have confidence in the science behind the technology that made these vaccines,” he said.
Beshear said anyone who gets vaccinated must continue to take precautions, and he urged compliance with getting the booster shot after a few weeks.
“You do not get that 94 or 95% effectiveness without both the shot and the booster,” he said. “So, everybody out there needs to make sure they get the second shot, the federal government is holding that allocation for you.”
Beshear said the vaccines show there is light at the end of the tunnel, but he encouraged Kentuckians to continue social distancing and wearing masks for the near future.
Kentucky will have gotten more than 150,000 doses of the Pfizer and Moderna COVID-19 vaccines by the end of the month, Beshear said.
On Sunday, the CDC recommended the next batch of vaccines should go to a wider group of essential workers as well as people over 75. Beshear said he does not know how many vaccines Kentucky will get in January, but the state will have to figure out how to distribute them.
“The next goal is to look at that, to figure out how to narrow at least parts of it a bit, which would be required for our planning,” he said.
Beshear said he may have more information on how those groups will be vaccinated next week. So far, frontline healthcare workers and long-term care staff and residents have received the majority of the vaccines.
