Mayo Clinic experts discuss demand for COVID-19 vaccine waning nationwide

Demand for COVID-19 vaccine is waning nationwide. According to the CDC, less than 30 percent of the US population has been fully vaccinated, and yet, appointments for first doses, and in some areas second doses, are often readily available. Experts with Mayo Clinic Health System recently answered questions from the media about the importance of building vaccine confidence in our communities and the burgeoning issue in some areas of patients electing not to go back for their second doses.  Dr. Gregory Poland, M.D., director of the Mayo Clinic vaccine research group, Mayo Clinic, Rochester talked to KAUS News about factors that can affect demand for the vaccine, and he went on to state that vaccines being met with hesitancy is nothing new….

Poland stated that a significant issue affecting vaccination rates is too many people who do not believe in science being influenced by people with no scientific background, such as politicians and celebrities…

Perry Sweeten, Southwest Minnesota director of pharmacy, Mayo Clinic Health System gave some reasons to KAUS News as to why demand for the vaccine has been waning, and he went on to talk about the main reason why, in his view, there is hesitancy by some to receive the second dose of the vaccine…

The Minnesota Department of Health reported that at last word in Mower County, 17,635 people out of a total population of 40,124 have received one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine, and 15,083 people have received both doses thus far for a total of just over 36% of the county’s overall population completing their vaccination series.