In Woodford County, home to fewer than 30,000 people, health department officials “got rid of every dose we had” during the early days of the vaccine’s availability, according to Cassie Prather, the county’s public health director. Since then, they’ve used a variety of methods, including working with local doctors. For someone skeptical of getting the vaccine, a physician they know and trust is much more likely to have an impact than a national figure like President Joe Biden or Dr. Anthony Fauci, or even a local government official.
“We say that if you don’t trust the health department or you don’t trust the government, then contact your local physician or someone that you know that had COVID or got the vaccine,” Prather told VICE News.
And at times, she said, health officials have even used the increasingly politicized conversation around the vaccine as a way to convince people to get the shot. “We remind people that Operation Warp Speed was created under Trump’s presidency,” Prather said, referring to the program created to facilitate the creation and distribution of a COVID vaccine.
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