‘We’ve Hit A Wall’: As Cases Surge, Health Officials Say Convincing Unvaccinated To Get The Shot Is Harder Than Ever
RN Kelly Pressey administers the vaccine to Trevor Kervin of Oakland. (Patty Wight/Maine Public)
COVID-19 has become a pandemic of the unvaccinated, who are driving up case numbers and landing in hospitals. In Maine, vaccination rates vary widely from county to county. Cumberland has the highest at 74%. The lowest rate is in Somerset County, where a little more than 50% have received a final dose. Efforts to boost those numbers are becoming increasingly difficult.
In sheer land area, Somerset is the third largest county in Maine. Its southern tip begins just outside of Waterville and stretches north beyond Jackman to the Canadian border. But its sparsely populated, just 50,000 people live here. Skowhegan, the county seat, is home to about 8,000 people and for some, the question of whether they’ll get the COVID-19 vaccine elicits a decisive response.
“No,” says Brianna Brooks, 20, as she loads groceries into her car in the Walmart parking lot. She says she doesn’t see the point. “I mean I read up on things, and it doesn’t prevent you from getting it or giving it, so no sense in being poked.”