Covid-19 vaccination demand has dropped off sharply after many residents got vaccinated either at the ECHO Clinic, the Eureka Springs Hospital or the Eureka Family Clinic. There have been plenty of free shots available but it appears only about half of those eligible have elected to get vaccinated both locally and statewide.
Dr. Dan Bell, co-founder of the ECHO Clinic, emphasizes getting vaccinated as soon as possible to not only protect yourself, but others.
“These vaccines appear to be working against any variants,” Bell said. “There is a threat of another wave of Covid-19 around the country occurring. But if we get vaccinated fast enough here in Arkansas, and stay the course with masks and social distancing, we can head that off.”
Bell said only 30 people signed up for first time shots at the ECHO Clinic this week. ECHO is planning to phase out giving first shots at its drive-through clinic. In four weeks when they finish giving all the second shots, ECHO will close its vaccination efforts. After that time, people will still be able to get vaccinated at Smith Drug.
“There is an end in sight getting the community vaccinated, so we feel like we can phase out our ECHO shot clinics,” Bell said. “It is a big effort to get 20 volunteers together to give vaccines and do the paperwork. We’ve had four months of it and will phase out by May 12. There are lots of opportunities for people to get vaccinated. A mass drive-through vaccination clinic is being considered by the Health Department planned at the Fairgrounds in Berryville, but the dates haven’t been set. Every year they do mass vaccination of flu shots drive-through at the Fairgrounds, so they have experience with this.”
On April 9, ECHO volunteers and nurses from Eureka Springs Hospital gave shots to seniors at the high school. There were plans to return April 16 to give shots to all students over 16 who want to be vaccinated. Bell said it looked like about half the seniors got the shot, but some may have gotten shots elsewhere.
Bell is concerned that a lot of people are not getting vaccinated. He said those include some Hispanics and groups of fundamentalist Christians who say they trust in the Lord to protect them, and there are some people with medical concerns such as an autoimmune condition.
“Then there are those who generally object to vaccinations in general, and refuse vaccinations for their own personal reasons,” Bell said. “Some people are holding off until they see more data. When you put it all together, a lot of people are not getting shots. It is a good thing the number of new cases in Arkansas continues to look good. We have been averaging 155 new cases per day over a seven-day average. That is low, stable, but it is not dropping further.
“We could end up trending back up with a surge because of the more contagious and dangerous variants. That is probably what we are going to see because we have enough people with virus fatigue who are not wearing masks, not getting vaccinated, and are getting together with others who also aren’t being careful.”
The Centers for Disease Control and the Federal Drug Administration have recommended a pause in the use of the Johnson & Johnson coronavirus vaccine while investigations continue of a rare, severe type of blood clot in six people. The agencies said while the adverse reactions appear to be extremely rare, the type of treatment need for that specific blood clot is different from what is generally given for blood clots.
About 6.8 million shots of the J&J vaccine had been administered in the U.S. when the pause was recommended. The vaccine had been touted as a game changer because it requires only one shot and normal refrigeration which makes it easier to use in isolated, rural areas.
The Arkansas Department of Health has reported that the state is seeing an increasing number of cases due to the U.K. variant, a variant from Brazil and two from California. The variants are more contagious and dangerous, according to the CDC. It takes two weeks for Arkansas to get variant test results back from the CDC.
Bell said vaccinations are the best defense against serious illness from variants and could help the country end the pandemic, although he has concerns about vaccine equity. “We have really been kind of selfish hogging all these vaccines for our own use,” he said. “We have an abundant supply now and we need to shift gears and send them abroad. It could come back and haunt us if the virus continues to spread and mutate in countries where people haven’t had the opportunity to get vaccinated.”