Frederica Freyberg:

The State Health Department reports that more than 23% of Wisconsin’s adult population has had at least one vaccine, with more supply on the way. The uptake increases as mass and community vaccination clinics across the state add to the pharmacy, hospital and employer sponsored sites, with eligibility opening up quickly. Lambeau Field turned into a vaccine clinic this week and will continue as a place to get shots, at least until the Packer players themselves need the space back. For more on this, we turn to Dr. Michael Landrum. He’s an infectious disease specialist at Bellin Health in Green Bay which partnered with the Packers and Brown County on the clinic. Thanks very much for being here.

Michael Landrum:

Thank you for having me.

Frederica Freyberg:

So in your mind how important is a community clinic like the one at Lambeau toward getting people in your community vaccinated?

Michael Landrum:

I think it’s incredibly important. We need places where people can go to get vaccinated that are widely available, easy to get to, can get large numbers of people through in a short period of time in an efficient manner as soon as possible. It’s a race between the vaccine and the virus right now, and so we need sites like Lambeau Field and other large community sites just to do this exact thing.

Frederica Freyberg:

So does being at Lambeau add a little luster to the operation and draw people in?

Michael Landrum:

I think maybe it does. I mean, it’s a little bit more comfortable maybe to go to Lambeau Field than some sterile office building or a repurposed box store. We’ve been doing some testing at an old Sears site here in town. But Lambeau Field is a little bit more comfortable, people are familiar with it. So maybe in that regard, maybe it does help.

Frederica Freyberg:

How many people do you expect to get their vaccinations there?

Michael Landrum:

Right now we’re expecting anywhere from 3,000 to 5,000 per week. We hope to double that or even go higher than that in the coming weeks as vaccine supply opens up.

Frederica Freyberg:

What is the situation with vaccine supply and its predictability right now?

Michael Landrum:

It’s been getting better. For the last few months, it really was not very certain. But it’s been getting better. The supply of Pfizer vaccine that we’ve been getting through the state has been increasing and has become more reliable. Moderna vaccine has been reliable, but has not been increasing as much. Of course now we have the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, which is just starting to become available. I imagine within a few weeks that supply too will be going up and becoming more readily available.

Frederica Freyberg:

So if people were going to go to the Lambeau site for their vaccines, would they know ahead of time what kind they would be given or is it just kind of whatever you get that week?

Michael Landrum:

So predominantly right now it’s whatever we have available. We’re still not at a point where we can let someone choose the type of vaccine that they would get. Whatever we have is what we’re going to administer. Right now that’s predominantly the Pfizer vaccine.

Frederica Freyberg:

How encouraged are you by the number of people getting vaccines in Wisconsin so far as reported by the Department of Health late this week, something like 70% of people 65 and older have had vaccines.

Michael Landrum:

I’ve been really encouraged by that. We’ve seen overwhelming demand here locally in the Green Bay area, northeast Wisconsin as well. So that has been very, very encouraging. I really hope that the demand like that continues as we expand to these other groups that we’ll be starting to vaccinate beginning early next week.

Frederica Freyberg:

That’s a big group, some two million people. Do you expect a lot of people to rush the doors, as it were?

Michael Landrum:

If that — yes. That’s kind of what happened when we opened up to those who were 65 and older. We had a big rush at first calling and it crashed some of our online registration sites. So I imagine there will be similar demand like that initially as we roll out to the next phase.

Frederica Freyberg:

Some people think that the Johnson & Johnson vaccine is inferior to the Pfizer or Moderna. What’s your guidance on that?

Michael Landrum:

I think that’s a really great question. I mean there is some — initially you look at the overall effectiveness rates and you see for Johnson & Johnson maybe 66% to 70% versus Pfizer or Moderna vaccine being 95%. At face value you think, well, I want the vaccine with the highest effectiveness. And I say to those people that are concerned, you have to consider that the Johnson & Johnson vaccine was done at a different time. So it’s not a head-to-head comparison. It was done later. We have more variants circulating now. Variants which may impact vaccine effectiveness so the numbers may have been impacted by that for sure. But the vaccine still is incredibly effective, very effective at preventing those serious illnesses that result in hospitalization and death, just as good as the Pfizer and Moderna. And that’s why you take the vaccine.

Frederica Freyberg:

What about people who are hesitant to take the vaccine? What can be done about that?

Michael Landrum:

Well, we’ve been doing a lot here to try to educate our patient population and the local community. There are lots of reasons why people cite for being hesitant about it. And I think you really combat that just with education as best as you can trying to get that message out there. It is challenging in some cases, for sure, and you really have to in some cases with patients come alongside them and rely on that relationship that you’ve had with them maybe that you’ve created over the years to try to encourage them and reassure them that it is safe and it’s something that’s really needed.

Frederica Freyberg:

All right. Dr. Michael Landrum, thanks very much.

Michael Landrum:

Thank you.