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 Whether arriving for scheduled COVID vaccines or testing, people
were motivated in part by fear of the Delta variant taking hold
across the country as well as in this stately town surrounded by
lush forests, strawberry fields and swamps an hour north of New
Orleans.
Head pharmacist Floyd Talley was at the center of the action, one
minute donning full protective gear to carry out nasal swabs in the
parking lot. The next, he was back in his white jacket, fielding
questions from moms about possible COVID symptoms their children
displayed.
"There is a huge uptick in the request for vaccines," Talley said.
"We're back almost to how we were when the vaccine first came out."
Those lining up for jabs say many reasons had made them reluctant
before, including questions about approval by the Food and Drug
Administration and the loss of a sense of urgency when cases earlier
started to fall. Other areas with low rates of vaccination -
Louisiana has one of the lowest in the country - would be wise to
recognize that motives can be mixed, doctors here said, and find
innovative ways to address concerns.
Nobody in Ponchatoula is even considering a vaccine mandate - that
would likely lead to a counterproductive backlash in this deeply
conservative patch of a deeply red state.
Instead, local leaders have made it less convenient to pass up
vaccination with such measures as a recent schools' directive that
unvaccinated teachers and students exposed to the virus would be
forced to quarantine, with teachers not receiving any extra sick
days as they did last year.
Louisiana State University said unvaccinated students would have to
provide monthly proof of a negative coronavirus test. Pharmacist
Talley said the prospect of that regular inconvenience prompted a
rush of college kids to start coming for the vaccine.
While none of these measures is as straightforward and forceful as
doctors in the area might want, they say they are beginning to have
an impact.
Tangipahoa Parish, where Ponchatoula is located, has seen four
straight weeks of double-digit percent gains in the number of people
being vaccinated. With just 30.4% of its population fully
vaccinated, it has a long way to go.
STEADFAST AGAINST THE SHOT
Penny Perrin was part of the crowd inside Floyd's recently.
She said the Delta variant definitely got her attention, but it was
the idea of having her daughter Gracie, 13, and son Jacob, 15,
forced into extended quarantines and missing long stretches of
school if exposed that prompted her to bring the kids in.
"The vaccinated can still get sick, though I know a lot less. And
this shot was developed so fast that we feel like guinea pigs,"
Perrin said. "But they may get sick and miss school if they don't
have the shot. I feel like I'm damned if I do and damned if I don't.
But we're getting it."
[to top of second column] |
 While COVID-19 vaccines were developed at record
pace, the process was based on decades of
research and involved scientists all over the
world.
Just up the road from Ponchatoula in Hammond, an
exhausted Dr. Robert Peltier, North Oaks Health
System's chief medical officer, lamented the
long and mostly futile fight to convince his
fellow "famously steadfast" Louisiana natives to
get vaccinated.
He said shaming or labeling rural conservatives
as ignorant was ineffectual, and described
complacency and timing as key factors too easily
disregarded. When the vaccines first came out,
many people were not eligible. By the time they
were, the threat posed by COVID did not seem as
dire.
"The masks mandates went away. People were able
to go on vacations. So everybody thought this
was over," Peltier said. "Understandably and
logically, a percentage of our population
thought, 'I didn't get COVID before. I didn't
get a vaccine before. Everything is opening up.
Why do I need to get a vaccine now?'"
The fight has been in-house at North Oaks, the
largest healthcare provider in Tangipahoa
Parish. A week ago the number of North Oaks
staff who were vaccinated stood at just 43%. By
Friday that number had shot up to nearly 64%.
Hailey Warner, 20, was in North Oaks on Thursday
getting a COVID test.
"My mom had COVID recently, and I was around
her, so that brought me in," she said.
Warner said she was not yet vaccinated, in part
out of fear it might affect her fertility. The
CDC has repeatedly advised that such concerns
are not backed by scientific evidence, but
doctors in this part of Louisiana say they have
heard many young women citing misinformation
they have seen on social media linking the
vaccines to infertility.
Warner also said she was concerned by the lack
of full FDA approval.
Dana Antoon, who owns eight pharmacies in the
Ponchatoula area, said the fact that it has
taken longer than expected for COVID vaccines to
receive full FDA approval, as opposed to being
authorized for emergency use, has sown far more
mistrust than she thinks leaders understand.
"I strongly believe that once they get full FDA
approval, we'll see a big increase in
vaccination demand," she said.
(Reporting by Brad Brooks; Additional reporting
by Anurag Maan in Bengaluru; Editing by Donna
Bryson and Daniel Wallis)
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