COVID surge has little impact on vaccinations
COVID surge has little impact on vaccinations
By Ellen Gerst
Casper Star-Tribune
Via Wyoming News Exchange
CASPER — Surges in COVID-19 cases and rising hospitalizations did little to affect demand for vaccinations in Wyoming since the doses arrived here more than a year ago, data shows.
Around 10,000 people signed up for appointments, put themselves on waiting lists or showed up to public clinics around the state each week between mid-January and April 2021.
After that, demand sharply dropped in May, when around 2,000 to 4,000 people received fi rst doses each week according to state data.
Vaccinations picked up slightly with the arrival of the delta variant in the summer of 2021, the data shows, reaching roughly 5,500 people in the first week of September.
But that week, the Biden administration announced a federal vaccine mandate covering millions of workers. Rates dropped dramatically the next week, and have not recovered to September levels since. That mandate was overturned for most workers besides those in health care by the Supreme Court last week.
“The common factor (contributing to hesitancy) in Wyoming is distrust of government,” said Melanie Pearce, a public health nurse overseeing the state’s northeastern region. “They want to make that decision for themselves ... maybe it would have been easier if the government wasn’t involved.”
Even October’s record number of hospitalizations and deaths in Wyoming did little to move the needle, the data shows.
When vaccines were first available, the Wyoming Department of Health focused on telling people who was eligible and where they could go to get a shot. At some point, department spokesperson Kim Deti said, those who “were eligible and who viewed vaccination in a positive light” had all been vaccinated, causing first-dose demand to drop off.
Deti said that the state’s messaging around COVID-19 vaccines took a “more serious tone” in the fall, with the health department adding more paid advertising.
“Certainly we would like to see higher rates,” Deti said. “But it would be wrong for anyone to think that the rates we have are due to lack of effort. There have been many people all around the state who have been working hard on this for more than a year.”
In Niobrara and 10 other counties where public health offices and nurses have been stretched thin, FEMA contractors arrived in the late fall to help give out shots.
Now, more than a year into Wyoming’s vaccine rollout, the state has the second-lowest vaccination rate in the nation, ahead of only Idaho at 48%.
Among those who’ve gotten their first doses after the initial rush, many are motivated by loved ones getting sick or dying, or out of the desire to travel or participate in other activities that require proof of vaccination, public health officials say.
Kari DeWitt, public relations coordinator for Sublette County’s hospital district, said that the county’s clinics in Pinedale and Marbleton are still receiving a steady stream of people coming to get vaccinated. Most of them, she said, have either been exposed to the virus recently or have seen someone they know suffering.
Throughout the last year, vaccination rates have also remained consistently higher among people over 65, while rates among eligible children are less than 10% in most counties, with some notable exceptions including Teton, Albany and Fremont counties.
“If parents aren’t getting vaccinated, then their kids aren’t getting vaccinated,” said Pearce.
In counties with low vaccination rates, public health workers say that most people have already made up their mind.
“People are just entrenched in their opinions,” said DeWitt. “There’s no magic thing, it’s nationwide ... people have dug in more than I’ve ever seen.”
This story was published on Jan. 18.