Delta variant, Louisiana doctors, slowly cracking vaccine resistance

“There is a huge uptick in the request for vaccines,” Talley said. “We’re back almost to how we were when the vaccine first came out.”

Those lining up for jabs say many reasons had made them reluctant before, including questions about approval by the Food and Drug Administration and the loss of a sense of urgency when cases earlier started to fall. Other areas with low rates of vaccination – Louisiana has one of the lowest in the country – would be wise to recognize that motives can be mixed, doctors here said, and find innovative ways to address concerns.

Nobody in Ponchatoula is even considering a vaccine mandate – that would likely lead to a counterproductive backlash in this deeply conservative patch of a deeply red state.

Instead, local leaders have made it less convenient to pass up vaccination with such measures as a recent schools’ directive that unvaccinated teachers and students exposed to the virus would be forced to quarantine, with teachers not receiving any extra sick days as they did last year.