Personal touch, word of mouth: How U.S. rural communities succeed getting COVID-19 shots into arms

Personal touch, word of mouth: How U.S. rural communities succeed getting COVID-19 shots into arms When Juan Carlos Guerra got the call on Jan. 12 that his county would receive 300 COVID-19 vaccine doses the following day, he went straight to work. Tina Bellon, Nick Brown, Lisa Baertlein U.S.

(Reuters) - When Juan Carlos Guerra got the call on Jan. 12 that his county would receive 300 COVID-19 vaccine doses the following day, he went straight to work.

Guerra, the top elected official in rural Jim Hogg County, Texas, got together with local school superintendent Susana Garza, who was helping him lead vaccination planning. They called hundreds of vaccine-eligible residents to schedule appointments, in stark contrast to big cities, where locals report struggling through maddening online registration processes.

Guerra, who has spent his whole life in Jim Hogg, said he knew almost everyone he called, and they trusted him.

The next day, he and his staff staged a makeshift clinic at a local pavilion normally used for livestock shows - a plan they had hatched days earlier. Garza donated staff to help register patients, while a local home care company volunteered to screen everyone for fever.

With nurses from Texas’ state health department administering shots, the team exhausted their vaccine supply mere hours after it had arrived.

Many rural counties like Jim Hogg have excelled at getting injections into arms fast and efficiently, outpacing big cities despite disadvantages in healthcare infrastructure and finances, according to a Reuters review of vaccination data in several states through late January.

Data from Michigan, Wisconsin, Texas, North Carolina and Florida showed the highest per-capita vaccination rates often belonged to less populated counties.

Officials in rural communities said personal ties with constituents made it easier to overcome vaccine hesitancy and identify those eligible for early shots, according to interviews with 20 local and national officials, healthcare workers and vaccine recipients.

“We know each other here. We can pick up the phone and call one another,” said Casie Stoughton, public health director of Amarillo, Texas, which handles vaccinations for nearby rural counties.

States dominated by rural communities, such as Alaska, West Virginia and Minnesota, have vaccinated a higher share of their populations than more geographically mixed states, according to data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. ...