 Through a partnership between Pockel Medical Center and the University of Pikeville, students and community members were able to stop by UPOC's campus to receive the FDA-approved Pfizer COVID vaccine. You know, part of the reason of us doing this is if people haven't had a chance to go off campus, if people are new to the area and maybe they didn't have access, the big deal is let's get them access to this. So it's been good so far, a lot of people coming in and our hope is, especially with the recent approval FDA on the Pfizer vaccine, which is what's being given today, that we'll continue to see that number increase in terms of people who are vaccinated. Although cases are rising with the recent Delta variant of COVID-19, Dr. Kingery says that those who have been vaccinated are seeing a better outcome than those who haven't taken the vaccine. There are very few people in the hospital or ending up very sick that have been vaccinated for COVID-19. So even though that surge continues to grow, and we see that the numbers are worrisome, what we're seeing is that most of the people who get it and certainly those who are actually getting sick or those who are unvaccinated. That's the reason why it's important. Let's try every way we can to get people vaccinated and give them access to that. Here at Pikeville Medical Center's Heart and Vascular Institute, we have assembled a comprehensive team of cardiac specialists bringing expertise from all regions of the nation and the world. We have coupled that with cutting edge technology providing them the best equipment and operating rooms available. The result is comprehensive cardiac care for the people of our region that is second to none. The Heart and Vascular Institute at Pikeville Medical Center. Statistics show that as of August 26th, 47.9% of Kentuckians are fully vaccinated with the majority who can't take the shot are still on the fence about receiving the shot or have decided that they don't want it. I know there are still some people out there that are afraid to get it, but what message do you have to those people? Yeah, it's a good question. I mean I understand the concern. You know it's a relatively new vaccine because it's a pretty new virus, but at the same time at this moment we have FDA approval completely on the Pfizer vaccine. We expect that the FDA will fully approve the other vaccines in very short fashion as well, but also to keep in mind that there's millions and millions of people who have received a COVID-19 vaccine and that we've seen very minimal side effects with that. The technology is very strong. It's been researched for several years before it was ever actually used for COVID-19 and so we can trust that the technology and the science is there, but also what we're seeing again is that those who do get the vaccine are not having significant side effects and they're staying safe. Keeping in mind that we have good access in Pikeville to people if they need the vaccine and aren't able to make it out to the clinic today, then certainly that'll be something that's available to them through the local health department as well as the Pikeville Medical Center. Reporting for Mountain Top News, I'm Jeremy Justice.