Vaccine skepticism in Los Angeles County, where 72 percent of eligible residents are fully vaccinated, is bipartisan. Vaccination rates are markedly lower in both more conservative areas like Antelope Valley, on the edge of the Mojave Desert, where they go as low as 34 percent, and in solidly Democratic neighborhoods like Watts, in south-central Los Angeles, where 56 percent of the eligible population is fully vaccinated.
When the history of the pandemic is written, let’s hope the author comes to the gymnasium turned vaccination center on the corner of Success Avenue and East 103rd Street in Watts and meets the staff members who applaud each time someone walks in to get a shot.
The stories that the staff of the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health tell after seven months in the gym are vital to understanding how mistrust lies at the heart of vaccine hesitancy.
More than 14,000 shots have been administered in the gym since the vaccine site opened in June, an average of about 66 people a day.
What’s the secret to persuading people to get vaccinated?
“A lot of it is really good eye contact and listening really well,” [pediatrician Dr. David] Bolour said.
“It’s persistence,” he said. “They see us out here. They get to know us. They get to see we are normal people.”
