ATLANTA (AP) – Coronavirus vaccines have been spread unevenly across the United States, but four deep-south states have had particularly terrible inoculation rates that have alarmed health experts and frustrated residents.
In Alabama, Georgia, Mississippi and South Carolina, less than 2% of the population had received the first dose of vaccine earlier in the week, according to data from states and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
As in other parts of the country, the southern states face several challenges: limited supply of vaccines, health workers who refuse to be inoculated, and bureaucratic systems that are not equipped to schedule the huge number of appointments sought. .
But other states have still managed, at best, to get vaccines in the arms of more than 5% of their populations.
While it is unclear why the deep south is lagging behind, public health researchers point out that it has typically lagged behind in funding public health and resolving disparities in care for its large rural population. .
“When you combine a large percentage of rural residents who are usually hard-to-reach populations and who have a smaller number of providers trying to build a vaccine infrastructure on the go, that’s just a recipe for a not-so-great response.” , Said Sarah McCool, a professor of public health at Georgia State University.
In Georgia, the state’s rural health system has been decimated in recent years, with nine hospital closures since 2008, including two last year. Local health departments have become major vaccine providers in some places as officials work to add places where doses can be administered.
“If we’re the only game in town, this process will take a long time,” Lawton Davis, director of a large public health district that includes Savannah, said at a news conference Monday.
The district had to stop citing itself in the face of an attack on applications after Georgia opened the vaccine to people over 65. Other health districts in the state saw their websites crash.
Alabama and Mississippi have also been hit hard by rural hospital closures. According to researchers at the University of North Carolina’s Sheps Center, seven hospitals have closed in Alabama since 2009 and six in Mississippi since 2005. Alabama, Georgia and Mississippi were ranked in the top five U.S. states in terms of to access to health care, according to a 2020 report from a nonprofit foundation connected to insurance giant UnitedHealth.
But in general, experts say it is too early in the vaccine launch to draw conclusions about the region’s shortcomings and that they cannot be easily attributed to a particular factor or trend.
“We’re building this plane a bit while we fly, and there will be wrong steps along the way,” said Amber Schmidtke, a microbiologist who has been following the spread of vaccines in the south.
Officials from different states have cited several challenges, but have also acknowledged the shortcomings.
“We have too many vaccines distributed that are not yet armed,” said Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves, who noted that some hospitals in the state do not use their vaccine doses. He said the practice “should stop.”
Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp cited a similar challenge and warned vaccine-adhering suppliers that the state would take unused doses even if that required “firing” their truck and making it available. he himself.
But in South Carolina, hospital officials say it is the state that has moved too slowly to expand access to vaccines, leaving them with unused doses. Recently, the state offered the vaccine to people 70 years of age or older.
Reeves, of Mississippi, said one of the biggest weaknesses in the state’s vaccination system is the federal partnership with CVS and Walgreens to administer vaccinations in long-term care centers. Pharmacy chains have been slow to hire enough people to do the job in Mississippi, the governor said.
CVS Health said in a statement that it has “the right resources to finish the job” at the long-term care facility. Walgreens did not respond to any emails.
During an online forum hosted by Jackson State University in Mississippi on Thursday, black general surgeon Jerome Adams, who is black, noted the reluctance of many African Americans to get vaccinated. He cited a general distrust of medical systems dating back to a now-defunct government study that began in the 1930s and left black men without treatment for syphilis for decades.
So far, only 15 percent of COVID-19 vaccines in Mississippi have gone to black people, who make up about 38 percent of the population, according to Dr. Thomas Dobbs, a state health officer.
Officials from the four states also said some health workers, among the first groups eligible for a vaccine, choose not to be inoculated. And some stressed that states dealt with limited supplies and high demand and implored people to be patient.
“Yes, the telephone lines will be busy. Yes, the websites will not work, “Kemp said Tuesday.” There are simply many more Georgians who want the vaccine than they can get today. “
Mississippi officials said the state’s website and phone line were overwhelmed after the governor announced Tuesday that the vaccines were available to people 65 and older or people with underlying medical conditions.
Liz Cleveland, a 67-year-old retired state employee living in Jackson, waited hours on the website using her cell phone, computer and tablet only to find unknown errors.
“It’s like playing. You can hit or burst, ”Cleveland said.
Wednesday around two in the morning, she was finally able to book appointments for her and her husband next week in Hattiesburg, which is 145 miles away. Mississippi officials said Thursday they will soon open an additional site for vaccinations in the state’s largest county.
Alabama officials have also been inundated with requests for appointments since they announced that next week the state will begin vaccinating people over the age of 75. A state phone line received more than a million calls the first day it opened.
Tuscaloosa’s Celia O’Kelley said she couldn’t reach anyone to make an appointment with her 95-year-old mother.
“I’m scared because Tuscaloosa is a hot spot,” he said.
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Associated Press writers Kim Chandler in Montgomery, Alabama; Emily Wagster Pettus in Jackson, Mississippi; and Michelle Liu in Columbia, South Carolina, contributed to this report.