Knoxville Hospital & Clinics has begun to administer COVID-19 vaccines to its frontline healthcare workers after receiving doses last week. CEO Kevin Kincaid says that people can find a great deal of misleading information online, and that when it comes time for the general public to get their doses, medical professionals are the ones to be trusted.

“Right now, during COVID-19, I’m really not going to be interested in what my friends have to say about it on Facebook. I’m going to ask my doctor, Dr. Hoehns, if the vaccination is appropriate for me. I fully expect that that answer will be ‘yes,’ but I’m going to ask my doctor, and I’m going to follow my doctor’s advice. That’s where I’m going to get my information about this COVID-19 vaccination.”

KHC, Pella Regional Health Center and Marion County Public Health together received 1,000 doses of the Moderna vaccine in the first shipment last week. As of last week, over 8,400 healthcare workers statewide had received a dose of the immunization.