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In some rural parts of the region, residents shouldn’t be surprised if they get a knock on the door soon.
It’s not a sales pitch. It’s your country calling, and it wants to tell you about free COVID-19 vaccines.
Following President Joe Biden’s remarks last week that more effort will be put into pushing coronavirus vaccines in areas with low vaccination rates, federal government personnel began assisting with going door to door in parts of Hampton Roads over the weekend.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency is teaming up with the state and local public health officials in Franklin, Suffolk, Isle of Wight County and Southampton County to spread information on the benefits of vaccination and where to find shots.
The Western Tidewater Health District appears to be among the first areas, at least in Virginia, where those resources are being deployed. FEMA is also canvassing in the Central Shenandoah Health District.
“We need to go community by community, neighborhood by neighborhood, and oftentimes, door to door — literally knocking on doors — to get help to the remaining people,” Biden said at the White House last Tuesday. “Look, equity, equality — it remains at the heart of our responsibility of ensuring that communities that are the hardest hit by the virus have the information and the access to get vaccinated.”
As the nation shifts away from mass vaccination sites, Biden said the next step will be getting vaccines closer to people’s homes and at locations they’re familiar with. The administration wants people to know the vaccines are free, they don’t need health insurance to get immunized and they can take off work if necessary to get the shots.
Beyond that, they’re emphasizing that research shows the vaccines are safe and effective at preventing serious illness and death from COVID-19. New state data supports that claim, indicating less than 1% of all illnesses, hospitalizations and deaths are happening among Virginians who are fully vaccinated.
“Do it now for yourself and the people you care about, for your neighborhood, for your country,” Biden said. “It sounds corny, but it’s a patriotic thing to do.”
But the plan has caused a stir among some Republicans on the national level who believe the administration is overstepping and invading people’s privacy. Some elected GOP leaders in other states have even attempted blocking the federal effort.
“The Biden Administration wants to knock on your door to see if you’re vaccinated,” tweeted Ohio Rep. Jim Jordan. “What’s next? Knocking on your door to see if you own a gun?”
Outreach in Western Tidewater started Saturday, with a team set up at a farmers market in Franklin and representatives visiting area businesses, said Dr. Todd Wagner, district director.
Teams will be in neighborhoods as well, talking to residents about upcoming vaccination clinics and registration opportunities. The doorknockers won’t have vaccines on hand, Wagner said, but they will have electronic tablets to show people how to sign up for clinics and point them to other information.
As of Monday, the teams visited over 75 community locations and businesses and had more than 70 interactions with local residents, said Gabriel Lugo, a FEMA spokesman. Four FEMA staffers are helping with this effort.
Though the state achieved Biden’s goal of 70% of adults having at least a first dose of COVID-19 vaccine before July 4, the only locality in Hampton Roads that has reached that benchmark is James City County.
In Western Tidewater, only 47% of adults have at least a first shot.
That concerns public health officials who believe vaccination will be the most powerful tool in ending the pandemic. Epidemiologists say despite a steep decline in infections this summer, cases will likely return in the fall, especially with the more aggressive delta variant spreading.
With limited staff resources, the partnership with FEMA will help the local health department educate the public.
“We’re a large district in terms of square-mileage,” Wagner said. “There’s a lot more, I call it, ‘shoe leather’ required now. We are having people kind of go around in a much more deliberate fashion.”
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The grassroots aspect of the vaccination campaign was outlined and funded by Congress in the $1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief bill passed in March. Local officials, private sector workers and volunteers are largely the ones doing the legwork.
For months, the White House has refrained from targeting Republicans who criticized the importance of vaccines. But with the vaccination rate slowing across the country, the administration is firing back at those they perceive as fear-mongering.
When South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster tried this week to block door-to-door efforts in his state, White House press secretary Jen Psaki did not mince words in her reaction.
“The failure to provide accurate public health information, including the efficacy of vaccines and the accessibility of them to people across the country, including South Carolina, is literally killing people, so maybe they should consider that,” she said Friday.
For more information on where to find vaccines, visit vaccinate.virginia.gov or www.vaccines.gov. For phone assistance, call 1-877-VAX-IN-VA.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Elisha Sauers, 757-839-4754, elisha.sauers@pilotonline.com