CM – States seek new solutions as US vaccine demand falls

Agence France-Presse. Pasadena |

Published: 10:58, May 02,2021

In this file photo, taken April 30, 2021, health care workers are waiting for people who want the Covid-19 vaccine as the Pasadena Public Library is home to a mobile vaccination clinic run by Harris County Public Health in Pasadena, Texas , has been set up. – AFP photo

While vaccination programs are lagging – if at all – in many countries, mass vaccination sites in the US are closing due to dwindling demand, so authorities are looking for new ways to reach people who have not yet received a shot. < The national vaccination rate peaked around April 11, according to official data, and while 55 percent of adults in the US have now received one or more doses, there is still a long way to go to achieve population immunity.

Most of the people who are most likely to want to get their shots have already rolled up their sleeves and done so.

In Texas, as in much of the country, vaccination is in free fall. A huge federal location in Arlington, between Dallas and Fort Worth, closed its doors in mid-April due to insufficient numbers.

Two other federal locations, the NRG Stadium in Houston and the Fair Park in Dallas, have ended their appointment system and are now taking part in tours .

The NRG Stadium, which aims to simplify the process, will now stay open until nine in the evening instead of five and vaccinate people in their cars.

« We have the capacity to see about 6,000 people, and at one point we saw up to 7,000 people. And now it’s down to an average of 2,500. So that’s a big drop, « said Martha Marquez, a spokeswoman for Harris County Public Health.

Authorities are considering more targeted approaches to reach people who are geographically isolated or who have difficulty reaching vaccination sites.

Five mobile vaccination centers are currently crisscrossing the areas of the county with the highest number of positive cases.

« We’ll be increasing to 10 clinics next week, » Ashlei Dawson, the official in charge of one of the sites, told AFP when she said the Supervised new employee training.

Their own team had set up for the day at the public library in Pasadena, a primarily Hispanic suburb of Houston.

The public only came in and by noon had only 27 people Received injections.

One of them, 55 year old Jose Herrera, said, « I didn’t do it before because it was too far away. » He said he was also concerned about side effects.

But Herrera and his wife Maria were eventually persuaded to do theirs by their daughter, who works in the Pasadena library.

Wyatt Gregg, a 31- year-old cowboy and rodeo trainer from Borger, northwestern, told AFP he hadn’t thought much about the question.

« Most of the time, I’m outside and not around people. When I have to travel by plane at the airport, everyone wears a mask, « he said.

The Covid vaccines » are a new business in the market – we don’t have long-term test results, « he added.

Although much attention has been paid to anti-Vaxxers, the group is actually quite small, said vaccination scientist Saad Omer, director of the Yale Institute for Global Health.

« Vaccine acceptance is on a spectrum, » he said , and when people who are lukewarm to the idea of ​​getting a shot run into obstacles, they are less likely to push forward.

The other way, he added, is to make the vaccination that easy and as simple as that Making it available that even people on the fence say, « Okay, let’s do it. »

According to a recent poll by the Kaiser Family Foundation, 29 percent of Republicans say they never take the vaccine be compared to mi t five percent of the Democrats and nine percent of the independents.

US surgeon General Vivek Murthy on Friday promised a new initiative to help people get vaccines through their own doctors, who, according to research, are often the most trusted ambassadors .

Omer said lessons could be learned from the way black doctors and health organizations have helped overcome suspicion among African Americans.

« When someone needs to scourge (the white evangelicals), it should be a white evangelical person, not an outside person, « he said, » a church leader who has the stamp of approval. « 

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