Dentists eligible to give COVID-19 vaccine in Oregon alone

Right now 100 community dentists can give vaccines along with 200 OHSU dentistry school students and staff, but those with local dental societies hope to see that number increase greatly.

Reopening schools.

Oregon is the only state in the nation where your dentist can give you a flu shot, or any vaccine for that matter and moving with the times - those who are certified will be able to give you your coronavirus vaccine - when it's your turn today kezi 9 news reporter emma jerome caught up with the director of the lane county dental society and joins us with more information about this latest development chynna - right now 100 community dentists can give vaccines along with 200 ohsu dentistry school students and staff- but those with local dental societies hope to see that number increase greatly all dentists who are able to give vaccines have to be able to store them properly and keep records - something joshua purvis with the lane county dental society said is certified through ohsu.

Only dentists who have the proper storage for the vaccine - which for pfizer, w eknow has to be kept at negative 80 degrees, will be approved for the certification he also said that it's unclear where dentists and dental office employees fall in the line up for receiving the vaccine themselves so it's quite a ways away before we find out which dentists will be able to vaccinate last year the state of oregon made history by passing an dimplementing hiuse bill 22-20 which empowers dentists to offer vaccines to their patients and allows access to life saving immunization for all oregonians on january 15th the lane county dental society and ohsu's dental program are partnering for a hands on immunization training where any dentist can register to become certified in administering vaccines at their practice lane county dental society dentists get first priority for the training lane county public health has created a section on their website detailing every death from covid in our county and the details surrounding them we take a deep dive into that in the next hour reporting live in eugene emma jerome