In Mississippi, 73,000 vaccine doses and no takers
Pas de vaccin pour les sceptiques américains.
Les États-Unis disposent d'assez de doses pour vacciner une grande partie de leur population – mais encore faut-il convaincre les sceptiques. Se faire immuniser, notamment dans les états ruraux du Sud, est un véritable choix politique. Qui sont ceux qui refusent la vaccination, et en quoi leurs hésitations révèlent-t-elles les fractures actuelles du pays ?
When it comes to getting the coronavirus vaccine, Mississippi residents have an abundance of options. On Thursday, there were more than 73,000 slots to be had on the state’s scheduling website, up from 68,000 on Tuesday.
2. In some ways, the growing glut of appointments in Mississippi is something to celebrate: It reflects the mounting supplies that have prompted states across the country to open up eligibility to anyone over 16. But public health experts say the pileup of unclaimed appointments in Mississippi exposes something more worrisome: the large number of people who are reluctant to get inoculated.
3. Although access remains a problem in rural Mississippi, experts say that the state may be a harbinger of what much of the country will confront in the coming weeks, as increasing supplies enable most Americans who want the vaccine to easily make appointments. 4. The hesitancy has national implications. Experts say between 70% to 90% of all Americans must be vaccinated for the country to reach herd immunity, the point at which the virus can no longer spread through the population.
5. When it comes to rates of vaccination, Mississippi still has a way to go, with just a quarter of all residents having received at least one dose compared with the nationwide average
of 33%, according to state data. Other Southern states, among them Tennessee, Arkansas, Alabama and Georgia, have similarly low rates of vaccination.
DOUBTS AND DISTRUST
6. A closer look at Mississippi’s demographics explains why hesitancy may be especially pronounced. The state reliably votes Republican, a group that remains highly skeptical of the coronavirus vaccine. Nearly half of all Republican men and 40% of Republicans overall have said they do not plan to get vaccinated, according to several recent surveys. By contrast, just 4% of Democrats have said they will not get the vaccine.
7. Another factor in the state’s low vaccination rate may be Mississippi’s large Black community, which comprises 38% of the state’s population but accounts for 31% of the doses administered, according to state data. Vaccine hesitancy remains somewhat high among African Americans,
although the doubts and distrust — tied to longstanding neglect by the health care system and largely to past government malfeasance like the notorious Tuskegee syphilis experiments — have markedly declined in recent months.
8. Access is still a challenge in swaths of rural Mississippi, especially among African Americans who live far from the drive-thru vaccination sites in urban areas that account for roughly half the doses administered by the state.
9. “We’ve got to take the vaccines to the people, to pop-up locations that don’t require internet or registration in advance,” said Pam Chatman, the founder of Boss Lady Workforce Transportation, a system of minivans that has been ferrying residents in the Mississippi Delta to mass vaccination locations.
10. But hesitancy is rife. Dr. Vernon Rayford, an internal medicine doctor in Tupelo, said he had been frustrated by patients who offered up a variety of reasons for rejecting the vaccine. They claim it will give them COVID-19 or render them infertile, and they worry about unknown repercussions that might emerge decades down the road. “I’ve heard some really wacky theories,” he said.
11. Rayford, who sees patients of all races, said he had discerned subtle differences in the skepticism: African Americans voice mistrust of the health care system, while whites express a more amorphous distrust of government.
12. Public health experts say what’s needed are well-crafted messages delivered by doctors, religious leaders and other figures who are trusted in a particular community. Dr. Thomas Frieden, a former director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention who took part in a focus group with vaccine-hesitant Trump voters that was organized last month by the de Beaumont Foundation, said participants wanted their fears acknowledged, and they craved factual information without being lectured or belittled.
13. The biggest obstacles to greater vaccine acceptance are [also] the misinformation that flourishes on social media and the mixed messaging from Republican governors that leave people confused.
14. “There isn’t one right way to communicate about vaccines, but you need multiple messages with multiple messengers,” said Frieden, who leads the health advocacy group Resolve to Save Lives. “And people don’t want to hear from politicians.”
1. scheduling ici, inscription.
2. glut surabondance / appointment rendez-vous / mounting croissant / supply stock, réserve / to prompt inciter / health santé /
pileup accumulation, cumul / unclaimed ici, non honoré / worrisome inquiétant / reluctant réticent. 3. to remain demeurer, rester / harbinger signe avant-coureur; ici, indication / increasing de plus en plus important / to enable permettre.
4. implication ici, conséquence / to reach atteindre / herd immunity immunité collective (herd troupeau) / no longer ne... plus / to spread, spread, spread se propager.
5. rate taux / nationwide national / average moyenne /
according to d'après, selon / data données, statistiques.
6. reliably systématiquement, immanquablement / overall en général / survey étude, enquête, sondage.
7. to comprise représenter, constituer / to account for représenter / somewhat plutôt /
distrust méfiance / to tie lier / longstanding de longue date / largely en grande partie / notorious (tristement) célèbre, fameux / experiment expérience / markedly nettement.
8. swath grande partie, zone / drive-thru = drivethrough "drive" / area zone / roughly environ.
9. pop-up ici, éphémère / location site / to require nécessiter / registration inscription / founder fondateur / workforce employés / to ferry transporter.
10. rife largement répandu / to claim affirmer, prétendre / decade décennie / down the road plus tard, par la suite / wacky loufoque, farfelu.
11. to voice exprimer / mistrust méfiance, manque de confiance (à l’égard de).
12. well-crafted bien formulé / to deliver ici, transmettre /
former ex, ancien / disease maladie, virus / focus group groupe de discussion, panel / to acknowledge reconnaître (officiellement) / to crave avoir grandement besoin de / to lecture sermonner / to belittle dénigrer, rabaisser.
13. great ici, grand / misinformation désinformation, rumeurs, "fake news" / to flourish fleurir, proliférer / social media (sur les) réseaux sociaux / mixed ici, contradictoire, ambigu.
14. advocacy défense.