Chautauqua County Board of Health officials note there are a number of reasons why some people haven’t gotten the COVID-19 vaccine, including misinformation, trust of medical professionals and struggles with using the internet.

During this week’s Board of Health meeting, Breeanne Agett, the county Health Department’s epidemiology manager, went over statistics about how the county is doing thus far, in terms of COVID-19 and the vaccine. She shared that the number of new cases continue to drop.

“As more people are getting vaccinated in those older age groups, we’re starting to see a higher proportion of cases in the younger groups,” she said. She attributed that to do with how older people in Chautauqua County have been eligible longer to get the vaccine to protect themselves.

As of Tuesday, 47% of Chautauqua County residents have been at least partially vaccinated by a New York state health clinic. This number does not include those who get vaccinated in other states, like Pennsylvania or Florida, so the number of vaccinated residents is actually higher. Agett said her office does not receive that information, but the Center of Disease Control does track it.

The county’s goal is 75% of all residents to be vaccinated. “I’m not sure we will absolutely get there but it would be great to make it for herd immunity. But the more, the better, regardless,” she said.

Agett was asked by board members why some people haven’t gotten the vaccine. “There’s a great deal of misinformation out there,” she responded.

She gave the example that some younger women believe they will become infertile, which Agett said has no evidence at all.

She shared that some people have concerns about how quickly the vaccine was created as well as some people seem to just be stubborn. “They don’t want to feel like they’re being made to get the vaccine — that they don’t have to do it and it is their right. And it is their right, that’s true. But it’s also really good for our community and the health of our community to get vaccinated because it gets us to a point where we’re really slowing down the transmission of the disease. That’s important to getting back to normal life and living a mentally healthy life within our communities as well,” she said.

Board member Dr. Robert Burke said the concern about how quickly the vaccine was developed is not correct. “The mRNA vaccine has been under development for 20 years. They just speeded up the end process for this virus, but this has been a process that people have been looking at for 20 years,” he said.

Dr. Betsy Kidder said having to register online has been a barrier for some people. She has personally had to help people navigate the online system so they can be registered for the vaccine. She believes not having to go online to register will be beneficial.

“With the opening of the option for people to walk in has been fantastic,” she said. “That has been transformational in some of the populations that we’ve had difficulty reaching.”

She also feels some residents will get the shots when they can get them from their own doctor. “I think when we get some of the vaccine into doctor’s offices that people have long-term relationships with that will be a great site to give vaccine and expand it to the populations that have been hesitant to date,” she said.

Dr. John Tallett said he is disappointed that so many people trust various websites, instead of their own doctors. “It’s amazing that they’d rather believe in disinformation than correct information,” he said.

At the beginning of the meeting, a letter was read urging the Board of Health to stop people from wearing masks or get the vaccine. The author noted it’s their right not to receive it.

Burke responded by saying, “Everybody has the right to refuse. That’s their right and their privilege. They also have the right to die from the effects of COVID infections. Six hundred thousand of us have already had that ‘right,’ which is not a great number. We rank No. 1 in the world with respect to the number of deaths from this disease.”

He and a number of other board members defended the use of masks and continued to urge people to get the vaccine.

DAILY COVID UPDATE

On Friday, the county Health Department reported 15 new COVID-19 cases, bringing the total number of cases to 9,183. Three of the new cases are in Jamestown, three in Mayville, two in Westfield, two in Brocton, one in Cherry Creek, one in Falconer, one in Ripley, one in Sherman and one in Stockton. There are 62 active cases, four individuals hospitalized and 224 people who are in quaranatine. The seven-day average is 1.2%. The number of deaths remain at 153.