Rural Kentucky health officials press on, one shot at a time

TAYLORSVILLE, Ky. (AP) — John Rogers waited months after becoming eligible for the COVID-19 vaccine. It was only after talking with friends that the 66-year-old retiree from rural Spencer County, Kentucky, was persuaded to get the shot.

“They said, ‘You know, the vaccine may not be 100%, but if you get COVID, you’re in bad shape,'" Rogers said. “You can die from it."

With the nation falling just short of President Joe Biden's goal of dispensing at least one shot to 70% of all American adults by the Fourth of July, public health officials in places like Spencer County have shifted the emphasis away from mass vaccination clinics toward getting more information out in a more targeted way about the benefits of getting inoculated.

Health departments have offered the vaccine at concerts, parades and fairs and plan to make it available at back-to-school events. They have encouraged local doctors to raise the issue with patients and promoted shots by way of printed materials and social media.

The hope is that word of mouth will ease fears and misperceptions about the vaccine and change people's minds, one person at a time if necessary.

That’s especially important in places like Spencer County, an area of rolling green hills and farmland southeast of Louisville, where the state reports that about 22% of eligible adults are at least partially vaccinated. Public health officials there think the numbers are improving and may already be higher.

Biden administration officials are increasingly turning their attention nationwide to some 55 million unvaccinated adults seen as persuadable, a group they have dubbed the “movable middle."

Many of those being targeted are under 30, an age group that has an especially low vaccination rate. But they also include people like Rogers, who said...