Vaccine Hesitancy Could Slow West Michigan Recovery

As vaccine supplies continue to increase across West Michigan, and the state of Michigan, health departments are now seeing vaccine hesitancy become an issue in the rollout.

Kent County Administrative Health Officer, Dr. Adam London, tells MLive:

That is an enormous concern we have right now. We’re seeing both vaccine hesitancy and just a general lack of urgency from some people who are willing to get vaccinated. It’s just not as urgent a matter as the group we were serving the past few months.

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, 15.2 percent of people living in Michigan 18 and older are hesitant to get the COVID-19 vaccine.

Currently in the state over 2.6 million Michiganders have gotten the vaccine. That means over 32% of the Michigan population has gotten a full set of vaccinations against Covid 19. (*via Michigan Covid Dashboard)

Many health departments are starting to see vaccination appointments go empty for the first time since the federal government's vaccine plan was implemented in January that's currently vaccinated over 200 million Americans.

That's led to many health agencies across the state to begin holding walk-in vaccinations clinics with no appointment necessary, including Muskegon County.

Many health experts tell us that to achieve herd immunity, we'll need over 70% of our population to carry the Covid 19 antibodies, either safely by getting the vaccine, or by actually recovering from coronavirus.

* UPDATE: As of 4/21/2021, Michigan dashboard data now includes deliveries of about 1.9 million doses made to providers participating in select federal programs operating in Michigan. The State of Michigan does not control how much vaccine is allocated or administered by federal programs.