KINGSPORT â As the first rounds of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccines are distributed to health care workers and nursing home residents, some local participants in the clinical trial are âanxiously waitingâ to find out if they got the vaccine or a placebo.
Most participants donât know for sure which of the two they received.
The vaccine has been given âemergency use authorizationâ but not yet FDA approval, so the participants are still part of an ongoing trial that is generating data for researchers.
Retired Eastman Chemical Co. chemist Bill Tindall said Monday that he and his wife, Judy, volunteered to participate in the Pfizer-BioNTech trial through Holston Medical Group after reading an Aug. 11 article in the Kingsport Times News that reported volunteers were needed.
Hoping for better days in the New Year
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The Johnson City Press on the coronavirus vaccine being used as a political favor in one Tennessee city:
Perhaps Carter County Mayor Patty Woodby’s decision to offer “extra” novel coronavirus vaccinations to members of the County Commission and their families can be chalked up to a rookie mistake.
After all, she’s only had the job since September. The Commission appointed her on an interim basis immediately following the death of Mayor Rusty Barnett and then elected her in November to fill out his term, which expires in 2022.
But Woodby has been around the courthouse much longer. She’s been a county employee for 10 years and a commissioner for two. Prior to her appointment, she was deputy clerk of the Carter County Circuit Court. As a commissioner representing Roan Mountain and the body’s vice chairwoman, she began presiding over meetings when then-Chairman Ray Lyons’ health started failing and assumed the role on a regular basis after he resigned.
The Johnson City Press on returning to schools after a winter break during the pandemic:
The annual winter break from school is a bigger relief than ever this year for students, teachers and especially school administrators.
The pressure from schooling decisions around the novel coronavirus pandemic has been immense - perhaps not at the levels faced by frontline health care providers, but nonetheless in unprecedented ways.
And the pressure is likely to get worse in the new year.
Since early November, COVID-19 has been spreading at an unrelenting pace in Tennessee and this region in particular. By many accounts, this is the worst possible place to be in the world right now for risk of infection. Even before the break, the surge in cases prompted officials to shuffle students in some schools back to all-remote instruction in hopes of mitigating the spread.
The mayors of Sullivan and Washington counties say there is no mystery to a new model being proposed for economic development in the region.
âItâs no secret,â Sullivan County Mayor Richard Venable and Washington County Mayor Joe Grandy said in what they called âan open letter on regionalismâ released on Wednesday. âThe resulting proposal is simple. Financially, local governments are asked for exactly this. Zero.â
Venable and Grandy said they issued the statement to address âongoing regional conversations about how best to magnify the voice of Northeast Tennessee on economic, entrepreneurial, tourism and workforce development.â
Their comments followed concerns expressed by the Kingsport Board of Mayor and Aldermen regarding the creation of a new âregional hubâ for economic development structured under the umbrella of the First Tennessee Development District. Kingsport officials said they have not been included in the process.
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