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“Even though I believe with all my heart the vaccine is safe and effective, I know when you have something pushed by the government, that makes people more hesitant, and they are more likely to push back.”įuneral director Charlie A Hicks II of Hicks & Son Funeral Home speaks during a graveside service in Macon on Monday. “No one here wants to be told what to do by the government,” Patterson said. Some residents are wary of the long- and short-term health ramifications of taking the injections, suspect of the changing advice from the experts, and feel like they are being strong-armed. Many people in Crawford County and other parts of the state aren’t convinced that public health authorities are right about the vaccines, Patterson said. Neither will this statistic: Crawford County residents are four times as likely to die of COVID-19 than people who live in urban counties. Government recommendations aren’t going to make a difference, he said. And, unless their circumstances change or the pandemic gets even worse, he can’t imagine demand growing much in the town located about 25 miles west of Macon. The way Patterson sees it, most of the locals who want to be vaccinated are vaccinated. (Steve Schaefer for The Alanta Journal-Constitution) And, unless their circumstances change or the pandemic gets even worse, he can’t imagine demand growing much. Pharmacist Josh Patterson of Roberta Drugs says that most of the locals who want to be vaccinated are vaccinated. Now, only the occasional person comes into Roberta Drugs, the only pharmacy, looking to get vaccinated. Patterson shut down his off-site operation. But, as pecan trees woke from their winter dormancy and peach trees started to blossom, the number of people seeking vaccinations in the county of 12,500 dwindled.
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The spacious eatery was closed on Tuesdays, which made it the perfect location.įor weeks, residents lined up to take the shots. Push backĪt the beginning of the year, with demand for newly available COVID-19 vaccines high and space in his 100-year-old drugstore tight, Crawford County pharmacist Josh Patterson set up a makeshift vaccination clinic in a restaurant across the street.
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Raising the vaccination rate has proved to be difficult, they say. The state needs to do more to improve health resources in rural areas, so more people know a trusted doctor or nurse when the next pandemic comes around. Doctors need to have more one-on-one conversations with their patients to encourage vaccinations. Public health officials need to be more aggressive and personal in their community outreach. Georgia’s health care community needs to do more of everything now to save lives, experts say. Of the Georgians who have died of COVID-19 since vaccines became available in January, 5% were fully vaccinated. While vaccination won’t stop all infections, breakthrough cases in inoculated patients are usually much less serious, medical experts say. “In general, rural people are older, sicker and poorer, all of which are characteristics associated with more vulnerability to the virus,” said Keith Mueller, director of the Iowa-based Rural Policy Research Institute. Public health experts say rural residents started out more vulnerable to the coronavirus because of a lack of access to medical care, which, in turn, means they are more likely to have untreated or uncontrolled chronic health conditions. Explore Complete coverage of COVID-19 in Georgia But, experts add, the low vaccination rates don’t fully capture why mortality rates are so much higher in rural areas than elsewhere. Only 38% of residents who live in those areas are fully vaccinated compared to 45% in urban counties, according to the AJC’s analysis. In Pierce County, with a population of 19,000 located a dozen miles northeast of Waycross, a resident was 10 times more likely to die of COVID-19 than someone in 1 million-strong Fulton County, home of the state Capitol, the analysis found.Ī big part of the reason for that, medical experts say, is the low vaccination rates in rural Georgia. But in the quiet small towns that make up much of the state, the per-capita toll is even greater, especially during this latest surge. COVID-19 has claimed more than 19,000 lives in urban counties like Fulton, DeKalb, Muscogee and Bibb, the type of counties where 80% of the state’s population resides.