Rhode Island Has a New Vaccination Problem — Not Enough Are Signing Up

Rhode Island Has a New Vaccination Problem — Not Enough Are Signing Up

The Rhode Island vaccination program has been a roller-coaster.

Now, a major problem is emerging — not enough Rhode Islanders are signing up.

The program launched with the Rhode Island Department of Health submitting an error-riddled plan to the federal government in October, then after launching the program sank to last ranked for the percentage of population vaccinated in January and February.

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In February then-to be Governor Dan McKee criticized outgoing Governor Gina Raimondo’s management of the program. “Like most Rhode Islanders, I am not satisfied with the current administration’s progress on vaccine distribution, especially as we see our neighbors in Connecticut ranked among the top in the nation,” said McKee.

Under Governor McKee, Rhode Island centralized the vaccination program and functionally pulled the day-to-day operation of the vaccination out of the Department of Health.

In April, Rhode Island moved into the top ten states for vaccination, but now a series of new problems are emerging in the state’s vaccination program — growing entrenchment to hesitancy sparked by fear and political ideology.

On Monday, Rhode Island expanded the eligibility for vaccination to all Rhode Islanders 16 years and older.

On Wednesday morning, there were more than 1,000 available vaccination appointments unscheduled for the day.

In January and February, many Rhode Islanders were competing online for limited availability but now the interest is waning.

To date, 490,765 Rhode Islanders have received one or more doses, but that is far from realizing any type of community or herd immunity. That number according to President Joseph Biden's senior medical advisor Dr. Anthony Fauci is that 80% of the population or more need to be vaccinated. That may be upwards of a year away as it will require the vaccination of children. Vaccines for children are now under clinical trial.

 

The Young, Conservatives, and Minorities

Three groups appear to be most reluctant to getting vaccinated.

“More than 40 percent of Republicans have consistently told pollsters they’re not planning to be vaccinated — a group that could threaten efforts to tamp down the virus’s spread, public health officials fear,” reports the Washington Post.

New research from pollster Frank Luntz with focus groups of conservative Americans found that to convince this vaccine reluctant group the messaging needs to change. "My vaccine-hesitant group gave 3 key points to winning them over: Stop talking about possible COVID booster shots. Don’t bully people who are vaccine holdouts. Show us anyone besides Dr. Fauci," Luntz tweeted.

The effort to build overall confidence was not helped by the decision by the FDA and CDC to "pause" the use of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine. That vaccine was placed on hold due to a small number of cases of blood-clotting issues. 

For younger Rhode Islanders -- those under 30-years-old -- the data is limited and their eligibility was only recently made available, but there is concern that there is little interest by the group and there is little public education.

In Central Falls, Mayor Maria Rivera has taken to going door-to-door to encourage vaccinations as GoLocal reported earlier this month.