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 St. Clair County, which sits on the Canadian border just northeast
of Detroit, is a COVID hotbed. Earlier in the month, 30% of virus
tests were coming back positive. Michigan has seen the biggest case
spike of any state in recent weeks.
Despite the surge, health officials for more than 20 counties in
Michigan told Reuters eligible residents are not showing up for
their shots, particularly in rural areas that supported Republican
Donald Trump in November's election, increasingly inhibiting their
ability to contain the outbreak.
In the early stages of the vaccination campaign, officials said,
people were knocking down the doors. But this month, even as the
state opened up the shots to all adults, counties across Michigan
like St. Clair County noticed the once-crushing demand was beginning
to lessen.
“For a 500-appointment clinic, we are getting 50 to 60% of the
appointments filled. A month ago, we could fill a clinic in 15
minutes flat,” said Danielle Persky, deputy health officer for Cass
and Van Buren counties, which sit near Lake Michigan in the
southwestern part of the state and strongly supported Trump in
November.
Her department has taken to Facebook to urge local residents to
“Stop on by for a vaccine!”
Trump's strongest base of support - white voters without a college
degree – has traditionally been distrustful of large government
programs such as the vaccination rollout. Local health officials
said they have also had to combat a torrent of misinformation on
social media about the virus and the efficacy of the vaccines.
While there are areas such as Oakland County outside of Detroit
where demand still outstrips supply, other regions in the state say
that just about everyone who wants a shot can get one now. Experts
worry that momentum is slowing, both in Michigan and elsewhere.
“We're starting to hit that wall in some areas, where most of the
people who were anxious to be vaccinated have gotten their vaccines,
and the rest are either still considering or have decided against
it,” said Tara Smith, an epidemiologist at Kent State University in
neighboring Ohio.
U.S. health officials such as Anthony Fauci have estimated that 70%
to 80% of the country needs to be vaccinated before the virus is
contained and most restrictions eased. About a quarter of the
population has been immunized in Michigan – on par with the national
average but less than neighboring Wisconsin, where nearly a third
have been.
“I don’t know if we’ll get to 60% or even 50% of the population [in
the state] vaccinated,” said Mark Hackel, the county executive of
populous Macomb County outside Detroit.
PARTISAN SLANT
Many of the Michigan counties that most supported Trump are making
slower progress at vaccinating the elderly, who have been eligible
for shots since early in the year and who remain more at-risk from
the virus. Trump won more than 60% of November's vote in 49 Michigan
counties. As of Tuesday, 60% of seniors in those counties were fully
vaccinated, compared to 66% in the rest of the state.
[to top of second column] |
 The 20 counties with the lowest
vaccination rates for seniors were all won by
Trump in November, a Reuters review of Centers
for Disease Control data on county vaccination
figures showed. A new Reuters/Ipsos
poll conducted April 12-16 shows deep ambivalence about the vaccine
among Republicans nationwide, with 38% saying they "do not want the
coronavirus vaccine," compared to 14% of Democrats and 30% of
independent voters. (For a graphic, click https://tmsnrt.rs/2QdUSN7)
Trump spent much of his final year in the White House openly
challenging the science behind the virus and U.S. public health
experts such as Anthony Fauci. While Trump's administration drove
high-speed development of the vaccines, he was a reluctant advocate
for them. He received the shots, in private, in January.
“We remind [people] Trump got vaccinated,” said Mark Hamed, who
serves as medical director for eight Michigan counties, all of which
voted for Trump with at least 63% of the vote.
The real challenge may lie in those under 65. Hamed said most of the
COVID patients he sees in emergency rooms are on average 40 years
old, are unvaccinated and have been infected with the U.K. variant
of the virus, which experts say is more transmissible.
Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer, a Democrat, has pleaded with the
federal government to increase the number of vaccines allotted to
her state to address the surge in cases but has been rebuffed.
Administration officials said shifting distribution was not in line
with its public health strategy, and the state needed to "go back to
basics" and shut down.
Lynn Sutfin, a spokesperson for the state Department of Health and
Human Services, acknowledged that while there are areas of the state
where demand for the vaccine has slowed, some residents "still
cannot get appointments and remain on waiting lists." The state is
constantly monitoring distribution of vaccine inventory, she said.
“We know the way out of this pandemic is the safe and effective
COVID-19 vaccine."
But Marcus Cheatham, health officer for Clinton, Gratiot and
Montcalm counties in central Michigan, said it was time for the
state – and the country – to shift its focus from logistics of
distribution and “pivot to what really matters, which is the large
share of the population that won’t accept the vaccine.”
Cheatham and other public health officials say the resistance is
largely rooted in fears over the vaccines’ safety, which can be
disproved with a robust education campaign in the coming weeks.
“It will be another wretched summer,” he said, “if we can’t get more
people to roll up their sleeves.”
(Reporting by James Oliphant, Jason Lange and John Whitesides in
Washington; Additional reporting by Chris Kahn; Editing by Soyoung
Kim and Cynthia Osterman)
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