Kentucky doctors worry that not enough people in the state will take advantage of vaccines for us to reach herd immunity

By Al Cross Published March 26, 2021 CORONAVIRUS, FEATURED, HEALTH POLICY, YOUR HEALTH

“As Covid-19 vaccine rollout continues to break records in Kentucky, there is a concern that interest could peak and the vaccinations could plateau before we reach herd immunity,” which is needed to protect people who can’t or won’t get vaccinated, reports Chad Hedrick of Lexington’s WKYT-TV.

“Dr. Ryan Stanton says the latest survey shows around 50 to 55 percent of Kentuckians will get the vaccine when they can,” Hedrick reports. “To reach herd immunity, the magic number is 75 to 80 percent. Stanton says we won’t know for sure how short or close we are to those levels until mid-year.”

Stanton, an emergency-room physician, and other doctors worry that the lack of herd immunity would lead to “flare-ups of cases year-round and chances for the virus to mutate easier,” perhaps into more contagious strains, Hedrick reports.

Because vaccination has been politicized, just like the pandemic as a whole, “Stanton says doctors have had to play myth-busters a lot when it comes to the vaccine,” Hedrick says.

“There’s a lot of false narrative and myths and dogmas that are still out there that are simply not true,” Stanton said. “Whether it’s the newness of the vaccines, whether it’s the risk for whatever the perceived association it is with potential risks for them. They just aren’t there and those aren’t factual.”

Stanton made this argument: “If you want to live the way we had to live in 2020, then not getting the vaccine is reasonable, but if you want to move past this, we need to get as many people vaccinated as can be.”