Turkish teams on mission to persuade the vaccine-reluctant

MARDIN, Turkey (AP) — In the medieval Turkish city of Mardin, Medine Ereli calls out to a team of medical workers walking along the town’s cobblestoned main street. Her 59-year old husband refuses to get vaccinated, she tells the doctor and nurse, before leading them to Enver Ereli, who’s on the job as a municipal sanitation worker.

The masked health care duo is part of Turkey’s “vaccination persuasion” teams, a recent initiative that aims to promote inoculation against the coronavirus among the country’s most vulnerable population.

Their job is to persuade people who fall in the age groups eligible for the vaccine, but who have so far been reluctant to get their shots.

At the start of the inoculation program, some elderly people mistrusted the vaccine amid rumors that it was part of a plot to kill off the older population, said Dr. Aysegul Duyan, who is out on the road with nurse Meltem Gulcan.

“They soon saw that that was not the case,” she said. “Nowadays, they are mostly worried due to rumors that it could cause paralysis.”

The mobile door-to-door units — equipped with coolers carrying vaccine vials — have been operational in several Turkish provinces since April. At local health offices, more government workers reach people by phone in an attempt to change their minds.

Health Minister Fahrettin Koca says 84% of the population age 65 and above who are eligible to be vaccinated have so far received COVID-19 shots. The government aims to bring that figure above 90%.

In Mardin, the team talked Ereli into getting his shot and the nurse administered the first jab while he sat down on a nearby ledge.

“I was afraid of getting sick and of being paralyzed. But then the medical teams told me it was for my benefit and I...