Rollout targets vaccine hesitancy in region as first doses fall
Experts urge extra efforts to buoy people to take the shot as first doses fall
WATERLOO REGION — New steps to overcome hesitancy and delay are being taken in the region’s vaccine rollout.
Part of this means taking COVID-19 vaccines to places where people are, rather than making people come to the vaccines.
“It really is so much work,” said Kelly Grindrod, a pharmacist and University of Waterloo professor. “But I don’t see how we’re going to get past these people who have apathy.”
“You will have to put in extra effort now to actually raise the bar,” said Zahid Butt, a public health professor at UW. “You need to find strategies that make it easier to get the vaccine.”
On Wednesday, 664 residents got their first dose. This compares to 3,666 residents who got their first dose five weeks earlier. Last weekend, when the vaccine rollout dosed a record 22,703 residents, only nine per cent were first doses.
New data shows almost 102,000 residents aged 12 and older remain unvaccinated (children younger than 12 are not yet eligible for doses). This means 17 per cent of the total population has yet to get the shot in the arm they are eligible to get.
“The last pieces are always the most difficult,” said Bruce Lauckner, chief administrator of Waterloo regional government that is rolling out vaccines. Some people without doses may have vaccine allergies. Some are determined antivaxxers.
“There will be a proportion of people who will never get vaccinated. That’s just a reality we need to deal with,” Todd Coleman, an epidemiologist at Wilfrid Laurier University, said by email.
Others who have yet to get a shot are described as too busy, too housebound, not fully persuaded, unconcerned about infection, or deterred by barriers.
Some may be reluctant to accept the Moderna vaccine. It is proving less popular than the dominant Pfizer brand, despite scientific consensus that the vaccines are equivalent and interchangeable.
Public health clinics have administered every Pfizer dose in stock and then some, squeezing extra doses out of vials. Clinics have given out 79 per cent of Moderna stock.
Some pharmacies worry their Moderna supply may go unused before expiring, Grindrod said.
“This brand recognition has been a real challenge,” said
Grindrod, who has watched people walk away from Moderna. “We’re now into a group that’s very apprehensive or a bit ambivalent, and it doesn’t take much to flip them one way or the other.”
To date, just under 50 per cent of the full regional population is inoculated with two doses each. Butt figures 90 per cent immunization is needed to avoid repeated lockdowns. To achieve that threshold, many tardy people will have to dose up.
One change already in place is to let people walk in off the street for a first dose at all public health clinics. This removes the barrier of online booking, still required for second doses.
“It definitely changed the demographic of who was coming in,” Grindrod said. When walkins were allowed, she gave out more doses at a Kitchener clinic to people whose language skills may have deterred them from booking online.
Another new effort is to partner with businesses to vaccinate employees at work sites. Already 17 companies have scheduled or hosted a mobile vaccination clinic.
More drive-thru clinics are planned. They allow families to schedule vaccination amid other chores without leaving the vehicle.
The public health department is also targeting mobile clinics to areas in need. New data released Thursday reveals top neighbourhoods worth targeting that have the riskiest mix of few first doses and high COVID cases.
Tops among them: the N2M postal code in the Victoria Hills area of central Kitchener, and the N1P postal code in south Cambridge near Churchill Park.
Butt said planners must use social media smartly to promote vaccination, and must continue to connect with community leaders to make inroads into minority populations where language is a barrier.
Public health has already partnered in vaccination with five Indigenous groups and four refugee-oriented groups and has held clinics in seven high-priority neighbourhoods, regional councillors were told Wednesday.
The region also plans miniclinics of between 20 and 150 doses, in consultation with community leaders.
The mass vaccination campaign has succeeded, Coleman said. Targeted vaccination is costly. But he sees a payoff in fewer deaths, hospitalizations, and lockdowns.
“Investments up front in targeted vaccinations will mean better control in the long term,” he said.