GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — “Most people are thinking about it," Brian Hartl says, "and we want to make it as easy as possible for them to get it.”
Hartl is an epidemiologist with the Kent County Health Department, and he knows that aiming for perfection isn’t realistic.
“We know we're not going to get to 100 [percent vaccination rate], there’s no way. But if we can get to that 70% that we’ve been talking about to reach herd immunity, that’s really our goal," Hartl says.
He's standing outside a mobile vaccination unit - a van that brings vaccines into neighborhoods. Kent County's health department viewed lower attendance at vaccine clinics as writing on the wall and decided to change things up. Hartl doesn't believe the county would reach the goal of herd immunity without the new approach, which is focused on reaching out to those finding themselves on the fence about the COVID-19 vaccine.
“We've seen some research to say we’ve gotten to 60%," Hartl says. "That extra 20% or so, those are the people who need to it be convenient to them, so we’re trying to use that - working with our community partners to bring the vaccine to where people are at.”
He says reaching that goal won't happen overnight.
"It’s not going to be a big rush, it’s going to be a slow climb, but these are the things we need to do to get to that point," Hartl says.
The vans are temperature controlled to keep the vaccines safe, but they can go pretty much anywhere, turning a church parking lot, public space or even next week’s Juneteenth celebrations into an opportunity to get a few more people vaccinated.
“We’re not expecting hundreds of people at a time to help us get to that 70%," Hartl says with the van parked outside of the United Church Outreach Ministry on Chicago Drive in Grand Rapids. "We're out here, I think we brought 15 vaccines today to make sure we don’t waste them.”
On top of the shots themselves, having healthcare professionals working the pop-up clinics means community members can ask questions and have concerns eased.
“I think this next 15 to 20% of people are kind of on the fence," he says. "They don’t know yet, still need to think about it, see how other people react to it, maybe need some more education about it.”
Hartl says the primary focus is getting people started with their first dose, and anyone older than 12 years old can take advantage of the mobile vaccine units. As of June 12, the mobile units do not have a set schedule of planned locations.
Related video:
►Make it easy to keep up to date with more stories like this. Download the 13 ON YOUR SIDE app now.
Have a news tip? Email news@13onyourside.com, visit our Facebook page or Twitter. Subscribe to our YouTube channel.