Gov. Jim Justice says West Virginia health experts are brainstorming ways to encourage more West Virginians to get vaccinated for covid-19.
“It is time for us to move again,” Justice said during a briefing today. “Earlier today, we met and you will see the rollout of an initiative that is not going on anywhere else.”
Justice later said the specifics are still being worked out.
“We’re going to give the details to our communities and our businesses immediately,” he said. “I’ve given all of our folks 24 hours from right now — 24 hours from now to give me all the wishlists of any and everything that they think we should do to be able to get this done.
“Once I get that, I’ll go down the wishlist because I really think I’ve got a good sense for what will work and what won’t work. We’ll try to be at every fair and festival. We’ll try to be at every Blue and Gold game. We’ll try to be maybe at the Walmart parking lots. Or we’ll have vehicles that will be dispersed and we’ll be going up Hoo Hoo Hollow.”
He concluded, “Whatever it takes, we’ve got to beat that number.”
The number is 588,000.
Justice calculated that the number 588,000 represents 40 percent of West Virginia’s population that is eligible for covid-19 vaccination.
So he used that number to come up with a goal: “Beat 588 bad.”
“When we start chipping into that number and we beat that number, we’ll be able absolutely without any question to get rid of masks, to have our lives back to normalcy, to be able to be having picnics and loving all of our community whether we live with them or not. We will absolutely defeat this terrible killer.
“But if we don’t get to this number, you can mark it down. I’m going to be in front of you a long, long time. And I’m just going to be adding up the bodybags, adding up the body bags. We’ve got to get this number.”
Justice said some of the people who haven’t yet been vaccinated may not have good transportation or access.
“We’re going to make it super convenient,” Justice said.
Others may not trust the vaccines, the governor said.
“We need to relax those fears, and we need to communicate a little bit better.”
West Virginia has administered at least one dose of covid-19 vaccine to 694,200 people, according to the dashboard by the Department of Health and Human Resources.
The state has fully vaccinated 543,654 people, according to DHHR.
James Hoyer, who leads the state’s vaccination supply effort, said several counties have started saying they just don’t need as many first doses.
“We’ve got to pivot and we’ve got to change our strategy because we have plenty and we have the logistics to deliver,” Hoyer said.
The governor agreed the pace of vaccination has leveled off.
“I am telling you this thing is a long way from being over, and we’ve got to really stay on our toes,” Justice said. “This journey has been long, it’s been tough, and it’s been really long and tough on all of us. We have hit a wall, and the wall is going to be the exact same wall that has hit all across our great land.”