Scott Reed isn’t vaccine-hesitant. He simply hadn’t gotten around to getting his Covid-19 shot.
But on Wednesday, the 60-year-old Wells resident took pride in the fact that he had come to the walk-in clinic at the Holiday Inn in Rutland without his “supervision,” better known as his wife. He decided to make the drive after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced that vaccinated people no longer had to wear masks, and he heard he could just show up.
Besides, it felt like the right thing to do.
“It’s an attaboy moment,” he said.
Now that Vermont residents who are most eager and best able to get the vaccine have received a dose, the state is shifting its strategy to attract those who are hesitant or harder to reach by offering walk-in clinics and scaled-down small clinics offering just a handful of doses. This weekend, they even sweetened the deal with a creemee coupon at certain sites.
“We want to make it as easy as possible,” said Fran Sun, vaccine clinic supervisor for Rutland Regional Medical Center, who oversaw Wednesday’s clinic in Rutland.
“The shift has been to try to get it as locally and as conveniently in front of people as possible,” said Dan Batsie, head of Emergency Medical Services for the state Department of Health. “You should be able to make it something no one has to go out of their way for.”
At least in Rutland, efforts appear to be paying off. The site first started allowing walk-in appointments last week, Sun said. That day, the clinic gave roughly 140 doses to walk-ins — a record.
By 4:02 p.m., minutes after the clinic opened to people without appointments, more than a dozen waited in a line stretching across the hotel lobby.
Their reasons for coming were varied. Rachel Valcour, who brought her 12-year-old son Jonah, said she forgot her password for the health department website, so it was easier to just show up. One man said his busy work schedule had made it difficult for him to sign up for an appointment in advance. A mother who came with her adult daughter said they were nervous about the shots. If they hadn’t come on the spur of the moment, they likely would have changed their minds.
At smaller community clinics, staff can more easily “address needs, listen to people about where they want to get vaccine and to work with their primary care providers to make sure that it’s available where they may be used to getting vaccines,” said Chris Finley, immunization program manager at the Vermont Department of Health. “Right now, it should be very easy to get a vaccine.”
About 66% of Vermonters have been vaccinated, the majority of whom are older residents. Since February, when the state started inoculating residents by age bands, it has relied on large clinics, run primarily by hospitals, the state Department of Health and the National Guard.
But the number of doses administered daily has been declining, Sun said. Rutland once had 1,000 people on standby for a vaccine. Now that list has no one.
Those who remain unvaccinated may have concerns about the shot, Batsie said. Others may not have internet access or don’t know how to sign up, and others don’t have the transportation. Some, like Reed in Rutland, simply didn’t consider it a priority.
The state has tapped EMS crews around the state to go directly to the communities. They show up at churches or on town greens. A Northeast Kingdom crew offered doses at a pull-off at a state forest in Bloomfield, Batsie said. Last weekend, a crew traveled to sites along Route 100 in a “barnstorming” event to offer doses to whomever showed up.
Two stations retrofitted multiple casualty or racing car trailers with refrigeration and the necessary vaccination supplies.
“The strategy has been to make it as convenient and local as possible,” Batsie said. “It’s a shift from a more centralized model to ‘we will come to you.’”
The state has leveraged businesses’ relationships with their employees, with walk-in clinics at resorts and local chambers of commerce. This weekend, the Department of Health announced that those who get vaccinated at an EMS clinic starting May 21 will get a free creemee coupon.
The question, Batsie said, is “How can we bring a sense of community, how can we pull on whatever we can to help people who are doubtful or indifferent to get engaged?”
On Wednesday, doctors went to eight different farms in Washington and Orange counties to vaccinate 42 migrant workers, said Naomi Wolcott-MacCausland, Bridges to Health state coordinator for the UVM extension.
“The state recognized there were barriers for reaching various hard-to-reach populations,” she said.
Many migrant farmworkers don’t have a personal email address, which is required to register for a vaccine, she said. Some don’t have access to the internet or aren’t comfortable navigating the web. Others may not have access to the Spanish translation they need or transportation to the clinic.
As more people get the vaccine and tell their coworkers and friends about their decision, it’s become easier. “There’s a lot of communication that happens across farms,” she said.
Wolcott-MacCausland estimated the state has vaccinated more than 75% of its migrant farm workers.
Sharing information widely and meeting people where they are has been proven to work, said Jan Carney, an associate dean for public health & health policy at the Larner College of Medicine at UVM.
“It’s the hallmark of public health practice,” she said.
At the Rutland clinic, Sun was focused on making people comfortable. Jack, a therapy dog, wandered around with a volunteer as a companion for anyone who might be nervous about the shot. At one point, Sun went out to the parking lot to meet a 14-year-old girl who was terrified of needles. Once, she said, staff waited with a child for two hours before he could be persuaded.
Vaccinating these residents takes more time than with those who have an appointment and are eager to come. But that, for Sun, is part of the job.
“We’ll do anything to make sure people get a shot,” she said.
To register for a vaccine appointment or get information on walk-in clinics, visit healthvermont.gov/MyVaccine or call 855-722-7878.
You will be asked to provide your name, date of birth, address, email (if available), phone number, and health insurance information (if available, but not required).
