Interest in vaccination dips across county

With more than 4,000 county residents fully immunized and another 6,167 awaiting a second dose, health officials say they are seeing lessening interest in weekly coronavirus vaccine clinics.

“It is opened up to everybody, but we are definitely finding it harder to fill up clinics,” said Trista Gilmore, public health nurse, at an April 14 Lincoln County Board of Commissioners meeting. Her remarks echoed those she gave to the county health board on April 13.

During that meeting, Gilmore said health department employees were working with medical providers in town to connect with patients and school nurses. The Pfizer version of the vaccine can be given to 16, 17 and 18 year olds, she said.

“We’ve touched base with some of the private schools … and have been doing outreach with the school nurses as well to try and hit that population before we are out of [Pfizer],” she said. “We don’t anticipate having more just because it’s a large dose quantity that has to come in for Pfizer.”

Jim Seifert, Troy’s representative to the health board, asked what the panel could do to aid officials in ginning up interest. Anecdotally, he said he had come across three types of people: those who wanted the shot, those adamantly against it and people on the fence.

“The ones that I would like to address are maybe the hesitant vaccinators, the people who are hesitant, kind of wishy-washy,” Seifert said. “Is there any way we can address that issue?”

Gilmore told Seifert that the department was continuing media outreach efforts as well as one-to-one chats about vaccine availability. The county’s COVID-19 hotline — 406-293-6295 — was still in use, for example, she said.

At the next day’s commissioners’ meeting, County Commissioner Mark Peck (D-1) took a different tact, slyly suggesting health staff leverage the now open drinking establishments in and around Libby.

“Here’s your shot,” he said with a laugh.

Commissioners also briefly discussed the hold placed on the one-shot Johnson & Johnson vaccine. Government agencies paused use of the company’s vaccine after six cases of unusual blood clots emerged following vaccination. It remains unknown if the blood clots are connected to vaccination, but officials want to study any possible link.

Gilmore said she had about 10 people lined up to receive the J&J vaccine when the change in recommendations came down. Half opted to wait and the other half decided to go ahead with the Moderna vaccine, she said.

While discussing whether six cases of possible bad reactions warranted shelving the vaccine — the J&J vaccine has been used more than 7 million times thus far — Peck said the politics surrounding the situation amplified any possible problems. And that’s a good thing, he said.

“There is a possible correlation there,” Peck said. “I don’t think it hurts to stop and look at it.”

Back before the health board, Gilmore said most of the interest in the vaccine nowadays came from people making travel plans. She reported recently vaccinating individuals preparing to leave for work out of state or planning on attending a family event.

“Lots of people who work in Alaska who see their quarantine time [cut down on] time with their families … get the vaccine and then there’s just lots of, ‘I wasn’t going to get this, but my daughter is getting married in Texas, so we’re going to get our vaccine now,’” Gilmore said.

Board member Amy Fantozzi, Libby’s new representative to the panel, encouraged Gilmore to remind teenagers and parents that many colleges and universities were requiring vaccination to attend in-person classes in the fall.

“That’s another thing for the seniors to consider,” Fantozzi said.

Given the drop in demand, though, Gilmore said the health department likely would scale back vaccine clinics in the near future. She predicted the department might drop weekly events in another month or so.

The update comes as active cases hover around 30 in the county. More than a year into the pandemic, the county has seen 1,601 coronavirus cases, 74 hospitalizations and 16 deaths. According to county data, 1,555 people have recovered from the virus locally.