EDITORIAL: Shot numbers rising nationally and in Nevada

The CDC’s hamfisted handling of its mask reversal in the face of the more contagious delta strain has angered the White House and left many Americans befuddled. So let’s be clear: The agency’s own numbers show that the unvaccinated account for the vast majority of COVID spread. In addition, as reason.com’s Jacob Sullum points out, even if breakthough spreaders are as contagious as unvaccinated carriers, those with the protection afforded by shots “are highly unlikely to be infected in the first place.”

Despite the CDC’s incompetent messaging, it appears that some of the unvaccinated are finally succumbing to common sense. The Wall Street Journal reported Monday that states with lower rates of inoculations have seen a quick upturn in residents receiving shots. Dr. Francis Collins, director of the National Institutes for Health, told CNN over the weekend that vaccinations are up 56 percent nationally in the past two weeks.

Nevada is no outlier. As of Sunday, the rolling 14-day average for daily COVID vaccinations was up 27 percent from July 14. State health officials said that about 2 percent of Nevada’s unvaccinated got their first dose of the vaccine last week.

That’s great news.

State officials have also ramped up outreach to nursing homes, which is months overdue. A priority must be to get health care workers in these facilities vaccinated — just 64 percent of staff and contractors have received the shot, meaning almost one-third of such employees are endangering those who are in their care. Much more work needs to be done.

Locally, public health officials have launched a Get Out The Vaccine operation, going door to door in Clark County through targeted neighborhoods in an effort to erode vaccine hesitancy. More than 36,000 residences have been contacted. The state’s rising vaccination numbers attest to the efficacy of these aggressive information campaigns.

In the meantime, a New York Times poll of Americans who have avoided the COVID shots contains relevant information for national, state and local officials. Most said gimmicks such as cash giveaways and raffle prizes would do little to persuade them. Instead, 46 percent of those who have taken the “wait-and-see” approach said they’d get vaccinated if they could receive the shot from their own physician, while 44 percent said full FDA approval of the treatments would do the trick. Even 10 percent of the “never” crowd respondents said they’d relent if their own doctor could administer the vaccination.

While there are some logistical issues about providing vaccines to primary care physicians, it might behoove the Biden administration to more aggressively explore such an option. Anything that makes the reluctant more comfortable will help bring us closer to the end of the pandemic.