Progress or hesitancy? Large number of openings for vaccine as rollout expands

CINCINNATI (WKRC) – Health experts say we're getting closer to the point of supply exceeding the demand when it comes to COVID vaccines.

A side effect of that: There are more open vaccination appointment slots, which is what health experts want to see. But it also highlights a clear vaccine hesitancy.

More than 800,000 people in the Tri-State area are either fully or partially vaccinated. Dr. Stephen Feagins of Mercy Health and Hamilton County Public Health says that's remarkable progress.

"We will move into in a few weeks where supply will meet the demand or past demand,” said Dr. Feagins.

That's a long way in just a few months.

"On a given year, we get about 140 million flu vaccines in this country. We’re almost there with the COVID vaccine,” said Dr. Feagins.

But, like anything else, there are skeptics and that's why there are a large number of openings to get the vaccine.

"We have lots of openings between 9 a.m. and 3:30 p.m.," said Renee Quallen of the Clinton County Health District.

Quallen is talking about Wednesday’s clinic at Southern State Community College in Wilmington. Right now, roughly half of 600 on-hand doses need arms to go into.

"We are still getting rid of it, but right now is the time to get people here so we can get rid of what we have,” said Quallen.

The Clinton County Health District is also hosting another clinic at Southern State Community College on April 1 with the Pfizer vaccine. Kroger is also hosting one the same day at the Wilmington Airpark with the Johnson & Johnson vaccine.

“We now are reaching beyond our direct community in the region. We have people coming from Cincinnati, Columbus, Dayton and even Cleveland,” said Quallen.

Part of it can be explained by the speed of the rollout, but part of it is also hesitancy.

"The U.S. has stood out as a difficult terrain in managing COVID because there was so much low trust in experts,” said Maya Goldenberg.

Goldenberg is an associate professor of philosophy at the University of Guelph in Guelph, Ontario, Canada. Her new book, "Vaccine Hesitancy: Public Trust, Expertise, and the War on Science," looks at the long history of vaccines going all the way back to smallpox vaccination.

"COVID has really been a test case for many of the themes I discussed in the book,” said Goldenberg. “Issues about public trust in peoples' relationships with experts and institutions.”

Issues like childhood vaccines and mother's questions being dismissed by doctors, forcing them to seek answers elsewhere -- like the internet.

“This is a common experience: A mother going to their health care provider to ask questions and getting shut down and then seek community elsewhere, and they might end up online where they encounter more radical views against health care,” said Goldenberg.

But across the board, Dr. Feagins says there is a movement of the wait-and-see crowd getting vaccinated because it's becoming normalized.

"If you’re in our office and you would like to get the vaccine, then you’re going to get it before you leave one way or another,” said Dr. Feagins. “It’s [COVID vaccine] -- OK. We haven’t turned into green people or anything like that and they’re also very much seeing that it’s working in terms of nursing homes and other places where we’ve developed herd immunity.”

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