The vaccination rate in the United States has been falling for days. Many mass vaccination sites have closed or will close and the next phase of coronavirus vaccinations will begin.
This will mean smaller teams of health professionals going into communities where there still has not been much penetration of efforts. Instead of expecting people to come to us, we will go to them.
In baseball terms it would be called “playing small ball.” No big home run events, just dogged efforts to get more people vaccinated. The groups of people to be targeted will include the elderly, minority communities, rural communities, people with mobility issues, etc.
Then the next effort will go towards those who are vaccine hesitant. Some smaller hospitals in rural areas only have about 50 percent of their staff vaccinated and the issue is not the availability of the vaccine itself. A better sales job is going to be needed by the medical profession itself if you expect to protect their members and the rest of the staff.
As we approach 50 percent of the adult population being vaccinated, the task of vaccinating everyone will become much harder. Just think about the number of people who don’t get the flu vaccine. I heard that excuse a couple of weeks ago from a pretty smart and informed individual: “I never get the flu shot and I’ve been fine.” They are equating the flu shot to a COVID-19 vaccination.
Eric Holdeman is a nationally known emergency manager. He has worked in emergency management at the federal, state and local government levels. Today he serves as the Director, Center for Regional Disaster Resilience (CRDR), which is part of the Pacific Northwest Economic Region (PNWER). The focus for his work there is engaging the public and private sectors to work collaboratively on issues of common interest, regionally and cross jurisdictionally.