Vaccine Update for Athletic Trainers in Missouri

January 13, 2021 Dear MoATA Members, As vaccines are being rolled out and administered across the state, I wanted you to know that President-Elect Carr and myself were part of a phone call last week with the Missouri National Guard and the Missouri COVID Vaccination Team. There were several other health care organizations and associations on the call. The call focus was "Non-Hospital Healthcare Worker Vaccines". Obviously some of you work within hospital systems and may have already received or been scheduled to receive your COVID-19 vaccine. Many of us, however, are employed in other settings. Therefore those of you in these non-hospital setting may not be sure where to turn if interested in being vaccinated. It was affirmed on this call that all licensed health care workers, including ATs, in the state of Missouri are part of Phase 1A of the plan. While information is still becoming available, I wanted to give you some direction so that you can start planning, if you haven't already done so. The entire plan can be found on covidvaccine.mo.gov with information being added regularly. A list of vaccination sites is supposed to be available on Friday the 15th. Hopefully there will also be step-by-step instructions on what you need to do to schedule and receive your vaccination.  The basic steps are as follows: Identify your local vaccinator Contact your local vaccinator with the number of qualified people needing vaccinated (*Contact DHSS and myself if denied) You will likely have to travel to the vaccination site Individuals being vaccinated should provide (1) a state of Missouri healthcare license, or (2) a healthcare organization identification badge, or (3) a signed letter from a health care provider (on letterhead) identifying them as a non-licensed health care worker. For those academic institutions sponsoring CAATE-accredited athletic training programs, your students can also be included. It has been recommended that we/they utilize number two and/or three listed above.  A letter from the institution should help satisfy this as well. I know this information isn't complete, but hopefully as pieces are added to the website the process will become more clear. Please be patient with this process, as it is a work in progress. There are many factors, including disbursement from the federal government, disbursement to state vaccination sites, and most importantly, dosing availability. If you have questions, please feel free to contact me. I will do my best to answer them based on the information that I have. Sincerely, Rob Carmichael MoATA President