COLUMBIA, Md. — Maryland Governor Larry Hogan walked the path of a drive-thru vaccine site in Columbia on Wednesday at Bridgeway Community Church speaking to the effort state and local leaders have made to try to reach everyone with a vaccine.
“We’re going to reach a point where instead of saying, ‘We have no supply and huge demand’, that we’re going to start vaccinating so many people that we’re going to have to go out and find them and that’s what our whole effort is,” said Hogan.
An effort that is now producing 75,000 vaccinations per day in the state, and which has now reached more than 80 percent of seniors and more than half of all adults.
While drive-thru clinics like this one add a few hundred of those who have not yet been reached, in the bigger picture, the governor is concerned that a halt in Johnson & Johnson’s distribution and potential problems with its vaccine may make it that much more difficult to reach people who are hesitant to get shots of any kind.
“Look. They found six cases that they’re investigating out of seven million of those shots so it’s not really time for alarm,” said Hogan. “but all of the coverage and the pause, no question it’s going to have some people thinking twice and it’s something we’re going to have to overcome.”
The governor added if the state is ever going to reach herd immunity and any kind of normal everyday life, as we once knew it, it will be essential to convince those who have not been vaccinated to get their shots when they become available.
