Vaccine hesitancy leaving vaccination appointments empty

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    Michigan (WNEM) — Now that a local health department has vaccines, it’s struggling to fill appointments for vaccinations.

“It’s really sad that we have to hunt for people to vaccinate,” said Jennifer Morse, medical director with the Central Michigan District Health Department.

She blames vaccine hesitancy. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, 15.2 percent of people living in Michigan 18 and older are hesitant to get the COVID-19 vaccine.

That same survey found there are three main reasons why Michiganders are hesitant. They’re either worried about vaccine side effects, don’t trust the COVID-19 vaccines, or don’t trust the government.

Stacy Padget, a Freeland resident, is someone who’s hesitant to roll up his sleeve.

“It doesn’t mean that it’s going to keep you from getting it or passing it to others,” Padget said. “It’s just too soon in the stage. So, I’m not going to take that personal risk up front until I get more information.”

Padget said he’s not ready to take the risk of getting the vaccine and would rather wait, even if it means contracting COVID first.

“If two years comes down the road and this is protecting people, I’ll be first in line for the vaccine,” he said.

But Morse said this hesitancy could prevent herd immunity from ever happening.

“We really have to hit a certain amount of immunity either through vaccine or natural infection to stop this pandemic,” Morse said. “The way we’re headed right now, we’re not going to get there. Or we’ll get there so slowly that we’re going to get second and third waves.”

In the last 11 days, the state set a new vaccination record, a million doses. More than 45 percent of Michiganders 16 and up have received their initial dose and 31.5 percent are fully vaccinated or about 2.5 million people.

“It needs 70 percent of the population to be vaccinated to end the pandemic is the number I heard. I’ll be a part of that 30 percent until its required,” Padget said.”

Demand for vaccines has also declined in Genesee County.

“When we started giving them out about two weeks ago, demand was high. I was doing as many as I could during the day,” said Rob Rossow Pharmacist at Clio Road Pharmacy.

He said that was around 30 to 50 a day but now…

“The last 4-5 days, I would say we’re struggling to do 10 in a day,” Rossow said.

So, are health care workers worried that this hesitancy and this pause that we’re seeing is going to get in the way of herd immunity?

“For sure. I mean, look at the numbers in michigan right now. This is a problem,” he said.

Rossow said the longer it takes to get to herd immunity, the higher the chance the virus has to mutate and potentially become more deadly.

“Taking your chances with that virus to me, it’s not a chance I wanted to take,” Rossow said.

A chance that Padget said he’s willing to take at least for now.

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