“I think every day you’re going to see somebody like Dr. Grant who took the vaccine. There were no side effects. He felt good. He feels safer. And I think that’s what it will take to get from 60, to 70, to 80, to 90 percent of the people willing to get this vaccine on a timely basis. I think demand is going to outstrip supply for quite some time.”
– Governor Ned Lamont answering questions about confidence in the Covid-19 vaccines and the impacts of demand on vaccine supplyWith Phase 1a of vaccine distribution beginning this week, the population receiving the vaccine includes critical care providers and nursing home residents.
Gov Lamont said he would let the CDC guide his decision about when to take the vaccine himself.
“I’m of two minds,” he said. “I’d like to be with Dr. Grant, take it and lead by example, but the other half of me says I should wait for group 1b, which is what my category is.”
Lamont said by the end of January, there would be 500,000 vaccines administered (2 injections are required to be fully vaccinated), and that would reflect vaccination of most first line responders.
Dr. Grant said in a survey of medical colleagues at Hartford Healthcare that included custodial, security, food delivery and kitchen personnel, about 65 percent expressed willingness to take the vaccine.
He said by the end of March 2021 he expected about a million people will have been vaccinated (twice).
Lamont said it would take a few months of people being vaccinated before there was an impact on the positivity rate, but that over the next month he expected doctors and nurses on the front line would be more able to stay at work and folks in nursing homes being less likely to have to go to a hospital.
Dr. Grant said that was significant because that vulnerable population has a high mortality rate.
Asked about a post-Thanksgiving and black Friday surge, Lamont said there had been a peak.
“More people than I had hoped for went out and gathered,” Lamont said. “We’re not South Dakota. We’re not Idaho. We weren’t at 40 percent, but we went from 1 percent to 6 percent. Overall I think Connecticut does pretty well and errs on the side of caution.”