GLOBE, Arizona. – In most parts of the country, getting a coronavirus vaccine can be a lot like trying to win the lottery, scouring the internet for commitments under complex eligibility standards that vary from state to state, and even from municipality to municipality.
In Kentucky and Indiana, anyone over 60 can be vaccinated, but you need to be 65 or 70 almost everywhere else. About 18 states are offering injections to grocery workers and 32 are vaccinating teachers. Cancer or heart problems? It depends on where you live.
Then there is Gila County, Arizona, where any resident over the age of 18 can enter a clinic without an appointment now and get the vaccine.
“The whole process is incredibly easy,” said Frank Struck, 24, an electrician and maintenance worker who was inoculated at a hospital in Globe, a city in the county, which stretches across the desert and pine forests some 145 kilometers to the east. and northeast of Fénix. “No bureaucracy, no crazy lines – just enter, take the photo and leave with peace of mind.”
With a limited supply of vaccine to offer to the millions of Americans who cry out for it, the country faced a choice from the beginning: administering vaccines as quickly as possible, allowing anyone who wanted to receive one, or directing scarce supplies to the most vulnerable. first.
The Federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommended the last course and, as a result, state officials have been agonizing over who is entitled and who is not – in some cases, delaying deliveries to ensure that the neediest go first.
Gila County also started with a set of qualification standards. But it has been so successful in vaccinating its residents that it is now one of the first places in the United States to open eligibility for the general population, offering a glimpse of how vaccination might start to look in the rest of the country or months to come. from now on.
“I think you can penalize us for distributing excess vaccines,” said Neil Jensen, chief executive of the Vale do Cobre Regional Medical Center, a hospital system that has hired more than 20 people in the past few weeks to expand its vaccination effort. “We just don’t think this is going to happen.”
During a pandemic that claimed the lives of at least 209 county residents, many people in the county’s 54,000 inhabitants are welcoming the wider availability of vaccines, a benefit that follows a distressing increase in hospitalizations earlier in the year. The extended vaccination campaign over the past two weeks has coincided with a 52% drop in new cases.
“I am so grateful to be in this position now,” said Gina Paul, 53, a retired city secretary who was receiving her second dose on Friday at the hospital in Globe, the county seat of 7,500 people, which was founded in the decade 1870 as a mining field.
Mrs. Paul said she received her first dose a few weeks ago, after taking her mother-in-law to get vaccinated and telling hospital staff that she was also open if they had leftovers at the end of the day. They called Mrs. Paul back, and she promptly had a chance. Now she is trying to persuade her 19-year-old son to buy one.
Health officials and elected leaders warn that major challenges remain in Gila County, partly because, in a county where anyone can get the vaccine, not everyone wants it. There has been skepticism about the vaccine, as well as resistance to the use of masks and measures of social detachment, among some people in the deeply conservative county, where President Biden lost 34 percentage points even when he won Arizona as a whole in the November elections 2020.
At the moment, many residents seem to be in a wait and see mode. Bars and restaurants were opened for closed deals during most of the pandemic, with only a few limits, although some aspects of daily life in the county, such as high school sports, have been canceled or delayed.
Resistance to mitigation measures has continued as the number of cases has plummeted in recent weeks. At the Safeway supermarket in the city of Payson one afternoon last week, about a quarter of customers were not wearing masks, including some men who openly carried firearms while shopping for food.
The risk of the virus increasing again worries some local authorities. “I don’t want people to think we’re still out of danger,” said Al Gameros, Mayor of Globe.
Frontline doctors and nurses in Gila County said they were only able to vaccinate all adult residents after meeting the vaccination goals of high-risk groups such as the elderly and essential workers. Because they did so well, Arizona state officials distributed a larger number of doses to the county, allowing it to become one of the few places in the country that could offer the vaccine to the entire adult population.
Another is Sitka, Alaska, a city of about 8,600 that administers vaccines to anyone aged 16 and over.
Some places, like Amarillo, in the Texas Panhandle, have become known for their willingness to set aside residency issues and vaccinate people from other states and counties who come to their locations. But Gila County adheres strictly to its own residents.
About 28 percent of county residents have received at least one dose so far, exceeding the national level of 14 percent, according to local health officials. Rhonda Mason, director of nursing at the Globe hospital, said the vaccination process is going well, but that the challenge is to overcome misinformation and skepticism and to vaccinate even more people.
The hospital expected an increase in calls after the vaccination was opened for all adult residents. Instead, the flow of people in search of photos has been somewhat stable. The hospital’s vaccination website, which before opening opened more than 200 vaccines twice a week for people with an appointment, had a service session on Wednesday, where about 180 people were vaccinated.
“The pace is a little slow if we are going to reach 70 percent herd immunity,” said Mason.
Health officials were on their way to vaccinate about 2,000 people over the weekend at a drive-through clinic on a high school football field in Payson; hundreds of others are expected to get the vaccine in hospitals or small rural clinics in the coming days.
County health officials said several factors have enabled the county to streamline its priority target groups and open vaccination for everyone.
The rural character of the county may have facilitated the promotion of awareness about the vaccine – among those generally willing to vaccinate – on social media and local newspapers and radio coverage, said Schouten.
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has sent volunteers to help organize vaccines.
It was also helpful that many residents were able to drive to locations in Phoenix, about 90 minutes away, facilitating initial vaccine demand in Gila County.
Another factor is that Gila County has hospitals in both major cities, Payson and Globe, where residents can be vaccinated. Some rural counties in Arizona do not have a hospital.
Health officials say they have also taken a more creative approach to vaccinations, especially after Gila County has passed the vaccination stages of teachers, day care centers and people aged 65 and over.
“We use a very broad definition of essential worker: those who work in the supermarket, at the Dollar Store, at the gas station, basically anyone who is working with the community,” said Ms. Mason, director of nursing at the hospital in Globe.
And yet the county had more vaccines to offer. That was when they decided to open the doors.
Some residents seemed surprised by their good fortune.
“I just feel very happy to be one of the people to get it,” said Jordan Pace, 22, a university student who was recently vaccinated at Globe. “I can’t imagine what would happen to my family if I caught the virus and then exposed them to it.”
At the hospital on Friday, some of those who came in to get the vaccines were surprised at how easy the whole process was. Chris Guthrie, manager of a broadband company, said he called the hospital in hopes of getting some basic information about the vaccine.
“They said to me, ‘Well, you are an essential worker, we can reach you in 45 minutes,'” said Guthrie, 46. “Of course I took the chance.”
Natasha Rodriguez in New York and Shaena Montanari in Phoenix contributed reporting.