As a rural Georgia county with a low COVID-19 vaccination rate, Whitfield County is on the front line of the war on coronavirus, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention wants to see what it will take to win. Or if winning is even possible. In meeting this week with leaders and public health workers in Dalton and asking for their take, CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky said there’s hard work ahead.
“There’s not this massive influx of people in communities like this who are lining up to get vaccine,” Walensky said.
Georgia’s vaccination rate lags most states’, and Whitfield County’s is in the bottom half of Georgia counties’. State data show just 29% of the county’s residents have had one shot of vaccine, and less than a quarter are fully vaccinated. That is far short of numbers that might constitute herd immunity.
With the eager mostly having been vaccinated, the vaccination campaign is now in its toughest phase: reaching those who have hesitated.
The public health district based in Dalton, Whitfield’s county seat, is working to reach out to hesitant groups by teaming with local businesses and other organizations. Like other areas in Georgia, though, the district has seen dwindling success from large-capacity vaccination sites that rely on people traveling to them.