Brazos County vaccine hub trying to address demand drop

BRYAN, Texas (KBTX) - The Brazos County Vaccine hub says the demand for vaccines locally is dropping. Local health officials are still trying to encourage as many people get the COVID vaccine as possible.

This week’s allocation has dropped to 2,000 doses, after the hub was allocated 5,000 doses last week.

The hub was closed Monday, but Tuesday morning they’ll be taking walk-up appointments for the first dose.

With vaccines available for everyone 18 years and older now and demand dropping, health leaders are taking a new look at their strategies.

According to officials, some people are choosing not to get vaccinated while some others can’t make it to the hub on weekdays, when it’s open during most people’s working hours. The Brazos County Health District says they encourage everyone eligible to get vaccinated.

”It’s great that the hub has opened it up for walk-up appointments. That is a huge step in getting COVID taken care of in our county. The more people we have vaccinated, the sooner we can go back to normal,” said Mary Parrish, with the Brazos County Health District.

Hub organizers say their location has been much more efficient, than smaller, mini-hub distributions.

“Maybe there’s a better way to do what we’re calling mini hubs than dedicating the amount of staff that we’ve been doing so we’re working on that right now,” said Jim Stewart, Brazos County Vaccine Hub Task Force Chief.

Health officials are hopeful more people will take advantage of getting vaccinated this summer when they take time off and have more flexibility for it.

“There’s a finite number of people out there that really want to be vaccinated. And we made a pretty good penetration of that market and I think over the next few weeks we’ll continue to push out as much as we can,” said Jim Stewart, Brazos County Vaccine Hub Task Force Chief.

Stewart says they saw pent up demand from older residents and retirees when doses were first given out. But they’re requesting less supply now with fewer people scheduling doses.

“We earnestly hope that we haven’t reached a peak,” said Parrish.

Health District officials say we’re nowhere close to herd immunity yet.

“The long-term is going to look very different. We already see some retailers carrying COVID vaccines which is great. We can also expect a lot of change in the summer time as people have more time off. Hopefully this will encourage them to get vaccinated as well. We’re also making plans for the summer at the health district to expand COVID vaccination,” said Parrish.”

“I think the other providers of vaccines, such as the pharmacies, the medical clinics, the student health center, the medical school, the nursing school, I think they’re going to be stepping up and doing a lot of the work here on out,” said Stewart.

More than 80,000 people have been to the Brazos County Vaccine hub so far for at least one dose.

The hub wills top giving first COVID-19 vaccine doses May 10. A timeline for the hub to be completely shut down hasn’t been announced yet.

More details on the hub can be found here.

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