GLOBE, Ariz. – Getting a coronavirus vaccine in most parts of the country can feel like winning the lottery, searching the internet for appointments under complicated standards that vary from state to state, and even country to country.
In Kentucky and Indiana, someone over 60 can be vaccinated, but you must be 65 or 70 years old. About 18 states offer grocery store shots, and 32 state teachers vaccinate. Cancer or heart problems? It depends on where you live.
Then there is Gila County, Ariz., Where any resident over the age of 18 can now walk into a clinic without an appointment and get a vaccine.
“The whole process is incredibly easy,” said Frank Struck, 24, an electrician and maintenance worker who was vaccinated at a hospital in Globe, a city in the province. It stretches across the desert and pine forest about 90 miles east and northeast of Phoenix. “No bureaucracy, no crazy lines – you just go in, get the chance and come out with peace of mind.”
With a limited supply of vaccine that the millions of Americans want to provide for it, the country has been faced with the choice from the beginning: shoot as fast as possible through anyone who wants to get one, or scarce supplies to the best target vulnerable first.
The federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommended the latter course, and as a result, government officials worried about who was entitled and who was not – in some cases, they delayed delivery to make sure the most needy came first.
Gila County also started with a set of qualifying standards. But it was so successful in vaccinating its residents that it is now one of the first places in the United States to qualify for the general population, and offers a look at how vaccination in the rest of the country can last weeks. starting to look like months from now.
“I think you can punish us for handing out too many vaccines,” said Neil Jensen, chief executive of Cobre Valley Regional Medical Center, a hospital system that has employed more than 20 people over the past few weeks. “We just do not think it will happen.”
During a pandemic that claimed the lives of at least 209 residents of the country, many people in the country of 54,000 people welcomed the wider availability of the vaccines, a blessing that follows a severe increase in hospitalizations around the beginning of the year. The extensive vaccination campaign has coincided with a 52 percent dip in new cases over the past two weeks.
“I am so grateful to be in this position now,” said Gina Paul, 53, a retired municipal clerk who received her second dose Friday at the hospital in Globe, the province with 7,500 residents, which was established was in the 1870s as a mining camp.
Mrs. Paul said she received her first dose a few weeks ago after taking her mother-in-law to be vaccinated and telling hospital staff that she is also open to it if they stay at the end of a day. They called Mrs. Paul back, and she immediately got a chance. Now she is trying to persuade her 19-year-old son to get one.
Health officials and elected leaders warn that major challenges continue in Gila County, in part because not everyone wants it in a country where someone can get the vaccine. There is skepticism about the vaccine, as well as resistance to measures and social distance measures, among some people in the deeply conservative province, where President Biden lost by 34 percentage points, even while winning Arizona as a whole in the November 2020 election. .
At the moment, many residents seem to be in a wait-and-see mode. Bars and restaurants were open for indoor business during most of the pandemic, with only a few restrictions, although some aspects of daily life in the country, such as high school sports, had cancellations or delays.
Resistance to mitigation measures continued as numbers fell in the past week. About a quarter of customers wore no masks one afternoon at the Safeway grocery store in downtown Payson last week, including men who openly carried firearms while buying food.
The risk that the virus could re-emerge worries some local officials. “I do not want people to just think we’re out of the woods,” said Al Gameros, the mayor of Globe.
Doctors and nurses on the front line in Gila County said they were only able to open vaccinations to all adult residents after reaching targets for vaccinating high-risk groups such as the elderly and emergency workers. Because they performed so well, government officials in Arizona allocated a larger number of doses to the state, enabling it to become one of the few places in the country that could offer the vaccine to an adult population. .
Another one is Sitka, Alaska, a city of about 8,600 that administers vaccines to everyone 16 years and older.
Some places, such as Amarillo in the Texas Panhandle, have become known for their willingness to put aside issues of tenure and vaccinate people from other states and provinces who appear in their places. But Gila County strictly adheres to its own residents.
About 28 percent of the country’s residents have received at least one dose so far, according to local health officials, the nationwide level of 14 percent. Rhonda Mason, the chief nurse at the hospital in Globe, said the vaccination process was going smoothly, but that the challenge ahead was to overcome misinformation and skepticism and get more people vaccinated.
The hospital expected an increase in post-vaccination calls for all adult residents. Instead, the flow of people seeking shots was somewhat steady. The hospital’s vaccination site, which opened more than 200 shots twice a week for people with appointments before the opening, had a walk-in session on Wednesday where about 180 people were vaccinated.
“It’s going a little slow, if we’re looking for 70 percent for herd immunity,” she said. Mason said.
Health officials were on their way to vaccinate nearly 2,000 people at a transit clinic in a high school football field in Payson over the weekend; hundreds of others will receive the vaccine in the next few days at hospitals or small outpatient clinics.
Official health officials said a number of factors enable the province to speed up its priority target groups and open up vaccinations to all.
The rural character of the country has made it possible to promote awareness of vaccines – among those who are generally willing to do vaccinations – on social media and in the local newspaper and radio coverage, said dr. James Schouten, a family doctor in Payson, said.
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has volunteered to help organize vaccinations.
It was also helpful for many residents to be able to drive to places in Phoenix in about 90 minutes, which facilitated the early demand for vaccines in Gila County.
Another factor was that Gila County has hospitals in both of its major towns, Payson and Globe, where residents can be vaccinated. Some rural provinces in Arizona do not have a hospital at all.
Health officials say they have also taken a more imaginative approach to vaccinations, especially after Gila County moved past the phases for vaccinating teachers, childcare staff and people aged 65 and older.
“We used a fairly loose definition of essential worker: those who work in the grocery store, the Dollar Store, the gas station, actually everyone who works with the community,” she said. Mason, chief nurse at the hospital in Globe, said. .
And still, the province offered more vaccines. That’s when they decided to throw the doors open.
Some residents seem to be surprised at their happiness.
“I just feel very happy to be one of the people to get it,” said Jordan Pace, 22, a college student recently vaccinated at Globe. “I can not imagine what will happen to my family if I get the virus and expose them to it.”
In the hospital Friday, some of those who walked in for vaccines were amazed at the ease of the whole process. Chris Guthrie, a manager of a broadband company, said he called the hospital in hopes of getting basic information about the vaccine.
“They said to me, ‘Well, you’re an essential worker, we can get to you in 45 minutes,’ ‘he said. Guthrie (46) said. ‘ Of course I jumped at the chance. ‘
Natasha Rodriguez in New York and Shaena Montanari in Phoenix reported.