SPRINGFIELD, Mo. — The Farmers Market of the Ozarks was packed Saturday with shoppers browsing through stalls of coffee beans, pottery, fresh vegetables, soy candles and birdhouses. At one end of the market, staff from the local health and fire departments offered doses of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine.
Ashley Seifert, 39, a pharmacist from Springfield, said she had wanted to get vaccinated for a while, but had been nervous about it. With the recent swell in COVID-19 cases in southwest Missouri, she decided it was time.
Stacy Gambill, of Battlefield, Missouri, was vaccinated earlier this year, but on Saturday she brought her 13-year-old — the only one of her four children who is old enough — to get vaccinated at the market. She said the family debated the issue, but their minds were made up by the anticipation of school resuming in the fall, and the recent upswing here in COVID-19 cases.
