State’s vaccination campaign takes spotlight
New Mexico is having a national vaccination moment. The rollout of COVID-19 vaccinations across the state is being recognized as one of the best in the nation, with New Mexico leading in a number of categories and national publications writing articles on our success. It’s a good feeling.
More than 54.4 percent of adults have received at least one dose of the vaccine, first in the nation, while at least 36.6 percent of adults are fully vaccinated, according to numbers from the state of New Mexico’s COVID-19 dashboard. That’s second behind New Hampshire — a state that physically is significantly smaller than New Mexico, making delivery of vaccinations less complicated because of distance.
New Mexico is succeeding in numbers and in directing shots to those most likely to be negatively affected by COVID-19. Over 26 percent of African Americans, 32 percent of Hispanics and 41 percent of Asians have received at least one shot, according to a review from the Kaiser Family Foundation.
State numbers show more than one-third of Native people in New Mexico have received vaccinations — crucial, considering how COVID-19 has devastated tribal communities.
Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham and her administration made vaccinations a key part of their strategy, along with continuing sensible public health mandates such as mask-wearing, social distancing, hand-washing and keeping limits on gatherings.
National experts are praising New Mexico’s vaccine rollout, crediting decisions made early to make the registration process uniform by using a state Department of Health statewide registry. (If you have not registered, go to vaccinenm.org to do so.)
“That decision proved to be crucial, helping New Mexico streamline its vaccination campaign and become the unlikely U.S. leader, local and national experts say,” wrote Dan Goldberg of Politico. “That success came despite the sprawling state’s longstanding public health challenges, including a high poverty rate and routinely poor health care outcomes and caught the attention of other states interested in replicating its model.”
New Mexico now has to find the people who are reluctant to be vaccinated, double down on efforts to find homebound sick and elderly who have been unable to sign up, and continue inoculating people who recently became eligible. To persuade the dubious, a “trusted voices” campaign is underway in which neighbors talk to neighbors about getting vaccinated. You can watch the testimonials at the Department of Health YouTube channel; they are heartfelt and from people you will know.
In Santa Fe, successful vaccination clinics for people already registered for the shots — large-scale ones because supply is finally available — are taking place at the midtown campus, with Christus St. Vincent Regional Medical Center employees pitching in to process hundreds of people each day. At the same time, pharmacies are vaccinating, as are rural health clinics, pop-up clinics, tribal health offices and other sites.
Members of the National Guard have been crucial in helping deliver shots, and health workers from both the public and private sectors have worked nonstop in the effort. Truth is, many can be credited with this successful effort. Now, continue the fine-tuning to complete the blanketing of the state with shots.
Now, the goal for state leaders — and really, for all of us — is to make New Mexico the first state in the nation to reach herd immunity. That’s the moment when enough people are either vaccinated or have contracted the coronavirus that the disease fails to spread — enough people have immunity.
When that happens, Lujan Grisham told the New York Times, New Mexico can “be the first to begin operating in the new post-pandemic ‘normal’ the right way, the safe way.”
That’s the goal. Now comes the execution: Get registered, get vaccinated, and persuade neighbors or relatives to do the same. That’s the way out of this pandemic nightmare, with New Mexico leading the way.