Vaccinating more of those who want it
Many Arkansans who are eligible for the COVID-19 vaccines don’t want them, or at least don’t want them yet, so rather than letting the vaccines sit in a freezer, the obvious next step is to make them available to those who do.
Following lower-than-expected turnouts at mass clinics a couple of weekends ago, Gov. Asa Hutchinson made eligible 180,000 members of Phase 1-B in its vaccination plan, including essential government workers, grocery store employees and others.
Then on Tuesday, Hutchinson greatly expanded the list by almost 1 million people by including Phase 1-C, which involves Arkansans with underlying health conditions as well as food service personnel, members of the media, and other so-called “essential workers” – the government’s unfortunate term, not mine.
As of Thursday morning, 571,271 Arkansans, or 24.06% of the population ages 16 and up, have received at least one dose, according to the Health Department. Studies have shown that’s enough to prevent serious illness and death, which should be the primary goal, anyway. A total of 309,028 Arkansans, or 13.01% of the population ages 16 and up, have received both doses.
Among the most vulnerable 65-over age group, 58.3% of Arkansans have received one dose while 29.6% have received two doses.
But acceptance of the vaccines is slowing. Slots have been left open at mass vaccination clinics lately because not everyone who’s eligible wants the vaccine, while many people who do want it haven’t been eligible.
Appearing on CBS’ “Face the Nation” Sunday, Hutchinson expressed hope that more people will get vaccinated when they see others do it. He said the state is encouraging people to take the vaccine.
“But at the same time, we’re going to move through the eligibility, and then we’re going to have to come back and catch up because we’ll probably be at a 50 percent rate. We need to get up to 70 to 80 percent acceptance rate,” he said.
That’s the level that supposedly will get us to herd immunity, where the virus runs out of hosts to infect. Herd immunity is why we don’t worry much about polio anymore, and it’s been policymakers’ goal since the beginning of the pandemic.
But it’s hard to see us ever reaching anything close to 70 perfect. Infection rates are much lower than they were earlier in the pandemic, although they have plateaued, so there’s less urgency now. Some Arkansans will never be vaccinated for religious and philosophical reasons. Some have already had the disease and have concluded they are now immune naturally and don’t need to be vaccinated. Younger people will be less likely than older people to be immunized. (So far, no Arkansan age 18 and under is known to have died of COVID.) And many people are still waiting to see what happens with these new vaccines. Plus, no one likes needles.
These vaccines don’t do any good sitting in a freezer, and they certainly don’t do any good when they’re discarded because they’ve expired. If we’ve got them, use them. That’s why Mississippi on Tuesday joined Alaska in simply vaccinating everyone age 16-plus who wants it.
The number of vaccinated Arkansans will rise now that more doses are available and more people are eligible. As more people become vaccinated, some early decliners might become more comfortable with it and decide to take the shots. If another spike in infections occurs, more people will want the vaccine.
But we won’t completely eradicate COVID-19 through mass vaccinations like we did with polio. The disease, the circumstances and the moment in history are different. To some degree, it will be endemic, meaning always with us like the flu.
Given all those realities, Arkansas should follow Mississippi’s lead sooner rather than later. Phases have been necessary because the vaccine has been scarce and to ensure the most vulnerable could be vaccinated. More and more, the focus should be on vaccinating whoever wants it, and doing it quickly.
The best way to do that is to keep the slots filled, which is easier to do when the willing are allowed to fill them.