Rural folks key to re-opening Pierce County. Can we convince them to get vaccinated?
The local pharmacists have a role to play. Same goes for the small-town mayors, the Daffodil royalty and the high school football coaches.
If Pierce County hopes to reach COVID-19 vaccination rates high enough to effectively limit the spread of the virus and get life back to some semblance of normal, those are just some of the local voices health officials will rely on to make the case, particularly in rural communities.
As The News Tribune’s Debbie Cockrell recently reported, Pierce County has hit what’s been described as “a tipping point,” with demand for COVID-19 vaccines falling and appointments going unfilled. That would be good news, except for one thing: Not nearly enough people have gotten their shot yet, and if the situation doesn’t improve in the coming weeks and months, the threats posed by COVID-19 won’t go away anytime soon. In many census tracts — including largely rural ones — vaccination rates for those 16 and older are still at or below 25-percent.
According to Karen Meyer, who is helping to spearhead Tacoma-Pierce County Health Department’s rural COVID-19 vaccination outreach efforts, that’s why the health department has begun changing its approach and focusing its efforts on reaching those who’ve been hesitant, for whatever reason, and wherever they live.
To make it work, it’s going to take a more personal and creative approach, Meyer said.
They’ll also take all the help they can get.
“I think we have work to do. And I think we’re up to the challenge,” Meyer said of the task ahead of Pierce County if we’re to approach anything close to herd immunity, which would limit the virus’ ability to spread and mutate. “There are as many reasons for either taking the vaccine or not taking the vaccine as there are Pierce County residents. What we want to do at the health department is meet people where they are.”
So what does that actually look like?
With fewer and fewer people arriving at mass vaccination sites across Pierce County — like at the Tacoma Dome, where recently the average number of unfilled appointments each day have tallied roughly 600 — Meyer said the next frontier is figuring out new ways to take the vaccine into corners of the county where many have been hesitant to receive it. It also means making vaccinations convenient, like at a recent Tacoma Rainiers game, when she said roughly 40 doses of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine were administered to fans who were already at Cheney Stadium enjoying themselves.
Perhaps most importantly, Meyer said, it means making sure that respected members of local communities are working to promote vaccination by answering people’s questions and easing their concerns. The health department’s Trusted Messengers campaign already includes testimonials from people like Peninsula High School head football coach Ross Filkins and two Daffodil Festival princesses, she said.
The health departement’s hope is to find people in rural communities “that others can relate to,” Meyers said.
“It does make a difference.”
All of this is familiar territory for Andrew Heinz, whose family has owned and operated Kirk’s Pharmacy in Eatonville for decades. While Heinz isn’t one of the health department’s official trusted messengers, he has been vaccinating people in rural Pierce County for as long as he’s been in the business. During the pandemic alone, the pharmacy he helps to run has already administered roughly 20,000 doses of COVID-19 vaccine, he said.
Heinz knows Eatonville and the surrounding communities well. His dad — who has served as Eatonville’s mayor and on the school board — started the family business there in 1995 when he purchased what was then known as Colton’s Pharmacy, where he already worked as manager. While the business has since expanded — opening locations in downtown Puyallup and the South Hill area — Heinz is proud of the pharmacy’s rural roots, he said.
Heinz also knows how difficult it can be to change people’s minds, particularly when it comes to a vaccine that has been highly politicized and the subject of rampant misinformation online.
“Every day, it’s something new,” Heinz said of the concerns he’s had to face, which have included everything from the false notion that the vaccine is more dangerous than the virus itself to the bizarre belief that the nasal swabs used to administer COVID-19 test cause brain cancer.
“It’s hard,” Heinz continued. “I’ll never force the vaccine on anyone who doesn’t want it, but I am trying to encourage and educate. … I’m just trying to understand what their apprehension is, and then trying to help them get past it — whether they’re afraid they’re going to get micro-chipped or they’re afraid they’re going to get COVID.”
As Pierce County Executive, Republican Bruce Dammeier has heard his fair share of concerns about getting vaccinated for COVID-19. Like many in the more conservative parts of the county, Dammeier has been critical of Gov. Jay Inslee’s handling of the pandemic, but the advice he gives is straightforward and largely non-partisan: If you’re tired of many of the restrictions, like he is, then roll up your sleeve.
Last week, Dammeier told The News Tribune it will be impossible to persuade everyone to get the shot — most of all, “the anti-vaxers on both sides,” he said — but he believes there are many Pierce County residents who simply need a little understanding, information and assurance.
Not all of the concerns he’s heard are outlandish, Dammeier said, describing the choice to delay or avoid the vaccine as a personal decision that shouldn’t be punished. He referenced the emails he receives regularly, like some from parents of teenagers who aren’t sure their children need to receive a relatively new vaccine.
In the coming weeks and months, Dammeier said the county will be working with a task group of local leaders and institutions — like churches and school districts — to help improve the county’s overall vaccination rate.
LIke Meyer, he also believes that finding ways to patiently answer as many lingering questions as possible will be crucial to Pierce County’s success.
“It’s pretty well established that I think vaccinations are the way we combat this,” Dammeier said. “But we have to recognize that different people are in different places, and some people come from a culture where they’re not very trusting of government. So the goal is to give people information that is responsive to their concerns, and make it easy.”
In places like Wilkeson, a town of roughly 500 residents tucked between Enumclaw and Carbonado, there’s little doubt of the obstacles ahead, which is why public health officials will take all the help they can get, Meyer said.
Jeff Sellers, 65, has lived in Wilkeson since 1958 and has served as mayor for the last four years.
As one of Tacoma-Pierce County’s Trusted Messengers, on Tuesday he foreshadowed the long road in front of Pierce County.
Having been vaccinated earlier this year, Sellers said that he believes most older people in his small community have already done the same.
Convincing younger residents can be harder, he said.
“It’s about 50-50,” Sellers said of the COVID-19 vaccination divide in Wilkeson, acknowledging that if he was younger he might have made a different choice himself, which underscored the challenge Pierce County now faces.
“That’s their right,” he added of his unvaccinated neighbors.
“To me, it’s all about getting back to living — not wearing a mask, walking downtown, going everywhere, and opening things up. That’s why it’s important.”
