More incentives are being offered to try and encourage people to get the COVID-19 vaccine.
A new approach is also being taken to reach more unvaccinated people.
The vaccine rate in Michigan has slowed significantly over the last month, leaving the state short of its vaccine goal and not at herd immunity numbers.
That’s led to more vaccine incentives along with fewer mass vaccination sites and smaller local clinics.
“As we’re asking people who are still hesitant about the vaccine, one of the things that is being said fairly frequently is it just takes too much time. It takes too much time to make an appointment, then to wait in line and I have to get childcare, it’s just very inconvenient,” said Dr. Watson, Chief Medical Officer at Mid-Michigan Health.
Iron Fish Distillery in Thompsonville is hosting a vaccine clinic Thursday, partnering with the health department, hoping to make it easier for people to get the shot.
“We saw other businesses in region take on vaccine clinics and we knew it would great at Iron Fish. Obviously being rural, our neighbors often have less across to healthcare services so we thought this would make it accessible to people and we hope we have a lot of people come out,” said Iron Fish Partner Sarah Anderson.
It’s all an effort to reach the state’s vaccine goals. Doctors say falling short risks undoing all of the progress of the past year and a half.
“I think that the thing we need to remember, we’re starting to see these virus variants show up on all fronts, and the longer the virus is around, it had more potential to mutate and change, and then the variants pop up. And if we don’t stop the pandemic, the variants are going to get smart enough to then even beat the vaccine,” said Dr. Watson.
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