Decatur teachers, staff take first round of vaccine

DECATUR — Teachers, administrators and staff are one step closer to winning the long fight against the covid-19 virus, thanks to the hard work of a dedicated school nurse.

Michelle Sisk, who serves the Decatur School District as its school nurse/health and wellness coordinator, was able to contact the Ozark Community Hospital (OCH) in Gravette to get the Moderna mRNA-1273 vaccination for the Decatur faculty and staff.

Since the first emergency use authorization for the covid-19 vaccine was implemented by the Food and Drug Administration on Dec. 11, 2020, Americans in certain groups are able to get at least a little protection for the pandemic. So far a little over 2.6 million people worldwide have died from one of the worst pandemics since the Spanish flu killed an estimated 50 million people from 1918-1920.

This vaccine was developed by ModernaTX Inc. and is administered in two doses, one month apart.

On Thursday, the entire faculty and staff of all three schools and administrators were assigned time which started around 8 a.m. and ran throughout the day. An OCH staff member escorted a group of recipients to a conference room where they reviewed the coming procedure and answered any questions. After the review session, the group was again escorted to the second floor of the hospital and taken into an examining room where two nurses administered the first part of the vaccine in the upper right arm.

Once this was complete, the group entered the second part of the room where they waited 15 minutes before being released. The wait time was in case anyone should have adverse side effects from the vaccine. In all, it took less than 30 minutes to complete.

Across the nation, the first stage of inoculations began in late December 2020 with medical staff members, including doctors, nurses, lab technicians and first responders. The next stage started in early January with police and fire personnel, educators and the elderly over 70 years of age.

In clinical trials, the benefits of the two-injection system have so far been shown to prevent the recipient from catching the covid-19 virus; just how long the protection lasts has yet to be determined until more trials are completed.

The faculty and staff of the Decatur School District will return to OCH in late February to receive the second dose of the covid-19 vaccine. Once this is complete, the teachers, administrators and staff will be, according to the CDC, protected against the continued presence of the covid-19 virus.

Steve Watkins, Decatur School Superintendent, praised the work Sisk did to get the faculty and staff the vaccinations they need to fight off this potentially deadly disease.

“We hope getting the vaccine clinic for our faculty/ staff is a huge step in getting in front of covid-19 and will lead us back to a normal routine for our families and students,” Watkins said. “We really appreciate the hard work Mrs. Sisk did to make this happen and also want to thank Ozarks Community Hospital for partnering with us.”