With COVID-19 vaccinations now open to all Oklahomans 16 and older, public health experts say doctors will play a vital role in overcoming remaining hesitancy among patients.
"Every survey we do, the most trusted individual is a physician or their medical provider," said Mendy Spohn, administrative director for the Oklahoma State Department of Health's District 8, which covers parts of southern Oklahoma.
"[We are] really encouraging that piece in fighting the vaccine hesitancy, and listening and addressing what some of those concerns are," Spohn said on a Tuesday virtual press conference hosted by the Healthier Oklahoma Coalition. "Those are the pieces that we're really trying to pay attention to and target efforts toward."
Dr. Dale Bratzler, OU Health chief COVID officer, agreed.
"Getting it into doctors' offices will make a big difference, because people will do something in a doctor's office, take a vaccine, that they might not go to a mass vaccine pod to do," Bratzler said.
Bratzler said that while vaccine hesitancy has declined over time as more and more people receive the shots, he expects to see, "sooner than later," more difficulty in hosting mass vaccination events.
Spohn said the state anticipates that as well, and plans to stand up more targeted vaccine efforts in the days and weeks ahead.
"For public health, I feel like we'll get to a point where it will kind of feel like the flu season, where we're kind of hustling the vaccine and seeing where we can be mobile and take the vaccine to people, instead of holding mass pods that make really good sense at the beginning of an effort," Spohn said.
Earlier this month, a number of health care groups launched a PSA campaign intended to demonstrate the safety and necessity of getting the vaccine as soon as it becomes available.
