trust and access issues linked to lower vaccine rates in rural alberta
dr. jia hu believes work can be done to bring rural rates up and pointed to northeast calgary as a success story
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dr. jia hu poses for a photo in prince's island park. saturday, june 26, 2021.
brendan miller/postmedia
by: dylan short
trust, access and reduced level of concern around covid-19 are contributing to lower vaccination rates in rural areas of alberta, say public health experts.
the province’s 71.3 per cent first-dose vaccination rate of people over the age of 12 is being bolstered by larger population centres, show data provided by alberta health. calgary has one of the highest rates with approximately 76.5 per cent of eligible people being at least partially immunized by late last week, while edmonton is hovering at 73.5 per cent.
lower northwest calgary has the highest rate of any geographical area at 82.4 per cent of eligible residents having at least their first shot.
by comparison, 37.1 per cent of people over the age of 12 in the county of forty mile and 44.3 per cent in cardston-kainai have at least their initial vaccine. the lowest uptake in the province is high level, which includes a large portion of northwestern alberta, with 20 per cent.
while there are some exceptions, with rocky mountain counties along the b.c. border having rates in the range of 60 to 70 per cent, the data generally shows the farther a region is from a large population centre, the lower the vaccination rate.
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dr. jia hu, a professor at the university of calgary’s cummings school of public health and member of the 19-to-zero coalition of experts working to build confidence in vaccines, said there are multiple reasons for the varying rates. he said the three main reasons people choose to get immunized include access to vaccine appointments, the level of concern people have for covid-19 and who people trust in the community.
“if you, you know, make the vaccine quite easy to get and there’s more places to get it, you’re more inclined to get it,” said hu. “certainly, there’s less access in rural areas than in calgary, for sure, and probably a bit more hesitancy there to give them the demographics. but i think it’s something that we really should pay attention to.”
hu said his team has a number of initiatives in the works in the coming weeks to help boost rural numbers. he noted that he was involved in a project in alabama that saw health workers go into the community, work with leaders and gain data around why people were hesitant to get a shot.
he now believes similar work can be done in alberta.
“we’ll apply that same approach, i think, to some of the rural areas, but keep in mind the reasons for hesitancy are quite different and, you know, probably far more pronounced access challenges,” said hu.
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hu believes rural rates can be increased and pointed to northeast calgary as a success story. the northern part of the city initially saw low turnout but after measures such as mobile clinics, targeted messaging and working with local community leaders, more people turned up to get their shots.
as of thursday, 68.6 per cent of people in the region had at least their first dose.
“there’s been a lot of organized work around getting uptake up in those populations and i think it’s important we probably do a bit of the same for people who live in rural areas,” said hu.
alberta’s chief medical officer of health dr. deena hinshaw said during a news conference last week that different people will have different reasons for not getting vaccinated, and her team has been working with various community leaders to promote vaccines.
“it’s working, it’s just that that takes a little bit longer than the first initial rush of all of those who are very keen,” said hinshaw. “we’re working on that and seeing progress but, again, the numbers just take a little bit longer to gain because each individual or each group will have a slightly different need.”
alberta health spokesman tom mcmillan said the province is using temporary, mobile and drive-thru clinics along with advertising campaigns and “much more” to get as many people vaccinated as possible.
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“this includes not only helping remove barriers preventing people from getting vaccinated, but also providing new incentives to those who know vaccines are safe but haven’t yet had time to get their shot,” mcmillan said in an email.
he urged everyone to get a shot as soon as possible and noted the provincial lottery with three $1-million prizes has been launched to help push people to book an appointment.
hu said he believes that if health-care teams continue to push the efforts mcmillan spoke about, they will see results. he said he is unsure if the lottery will help but was happy to see the province try something new to encourage people to book appointments.
hu said he would like to see 85 per cent of albertans get shots.
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