MARTINSVILLE, Ind. — There is plenty of COVID-19 vaccine available, but not enough people are willing to roll up their sleeve for the shot in the arm.
Clinics across Indiana have made it even easier for people to get the vaccine by allowing walk-ins instead of requiring appointments.
Indiana is seeing fewer new doses given each week, even though only about 34 percent of eligible people in the state are fully vaccinated.
The Morgan County Health Department opened a vaccine clinic in a former grocery store in Martinsville in January. The clinic gives between 250 and 300 of the Moderna two-dose shots a day. But in a county where only 23 percent of the population is vaccinated, public health officials wish the clinic was busier.
"I want everyone to get the shot,” said Steve Lyday, preparedness and response coordinator for the Morgan County Health Department. “Come on down. If you don't have an appointment, we'll work you in. It doesn't take long at all really."
The clinic started accepting walk-ins on Monday at the request of the state health department, but they have only seen about 10 walk-ins per day. At 1:30 p.m. Thursday, no one was waiting to receive a shot.
"I've talked to a lot of people who don't want the vaccine,” said Lyday. “There's various reasons why they don't want the vaccine, but I think their minds are pretty made up that if you're going to get the vaccine, they've had it. And if they don't, they're not going to."
"I think they're just sort of scared, not really knowing what's going to happen," said 21-year-old Dallas Alte, who walked in Thursday afternoon without an appointment and was done in less than 30 minutes. "We thought it was important to get the vaccine because we didn't want to get sick at all.”
The Morgan County Health Department canceled a mass clinic last Saturday in Mooresville because only 97 people had signed up four days before the event. The county had planned to give 1,200 shots.
The State Department of Health admits the drop in demand creates the risk of wasted doses.
"We fully recognize that there is going to, unfortunately, going to be waste now,” said Dr. Lindsay Weaver, Indiana's chief medical officer. “If someone is there in front of a vaccinator, we want them to give them the vaccine. We recognize that maybe at the end of the day when they have a Moderna vial and they have four extra doses in there, everyone has had the opportunity to get vaccinated, so it's very hard to find four more people to get that vaccine. And so, unfortunately, there is going to be some waste."
Lyday says Morgan County has avoided wasting doses so far.
“We stop taking walk-ins two hours before we close,” said Lyday. “They literally calculate who's coming. They call people to make sure they're coming to make sure we have those doses."
But the vaccine supply is greater than the demand.
"We have plenty of vaccine,” said Lyday. “If we have more people coming through the door, we'll find a way to get shots in the arms. That would be a nice problem to have."
Lyday says the clinic has no appointments for some days in May.
The clinic will stay open to provide the Moderna second dose 30 days after the first, but Lyday anticipates the clinic closing by the end of June.