WEBVTT - Doubt, Bonus: A Surprising Southern Success 0:00:01.280 --> 0:00:06.280 Down would be good with me. Did your son rocking 0:00:06.440 --> 0:00:10.959 chair or straight chair? And I got support whatever chair 0:00:11.080 --> 0:00:14.200 you don't want. You know, I love a good rocking chair. 0:00:15.640 --> 0:00:19.159 I'm in Bradley County, Arkansas, a little community of just 0:00:19.280 --> 0:00:22.360 over ten thousand people in the southeastern part of the state. 0:00:23.320 --> 0:00:26.320 It's best known for the tall, skinny pine trees that 0:00:26.440 --> 0:00:29.680 line the roads here and a variety of pink tomato. 0:00:30.760 --> 0:00:35.760 I'm talking with Greg Reap. I grew up here. Um 0:00:36.159 --> 0:00:38.600 so I've been here all my life other than little 0:00:38.640 --> 0:00:43.000 college time and uh and I got started at a 0:00:43.080 --> 0:00:45.519 young age. I got a chance to be in the intern, 0:00:45.680 --> 0:00:49.440 literally in the mayor's office here. Greg is sort of 0:00:49.479 --> 0:00:53.199 famous in these parts. He started his career writing grants 0:00:53.200 --> 0:00:57.240 at city hall in the county seat Warren. He worked 0:00:57.240 --> 0:01:00.080 to get roads paved and sewer systems installed in the 0:01:00.120 --> 0:01:03.440 poorer parts of town. In the seventies, at thirty one, 0:01:04.000 --> 0:01:07.679 he became mayor, a position he held for nearly two 0:01:07.959 --> 0:01:11.040 decades until he left for a brief career in the 0:01:11.160 --> 0:01:17.080 Arkansas State Legislature. Bradley is still a dry county, and 0:01:17.080 --> 0:01:20.800 the most hopping place is Molly's Diner in downtown Warren. 0:01:21.440 --> 0:01:24.840 Where neighbors catch up over fried bologny sandwiches and grits. 0:01:25.480 --> 0:01:28.119 It's the kind of place where being mayor means you 0:01:28.200 --> 0:01:35.800 literally know everyone. We're sitting in Greg's son's downtown art gallery. 0:01:36.080 --> 0:01:38.319 Greg can't help but regale me with a little bit 0:01:38.319 --> 0:01:43.039 of local history. The county, he explains, was named for 0:01:43.160 --> 0:01:46.960 Captain Hugh Bradley, an early settler of this part of 0:01:47.000 --> 0:01:50.040 the state, and the town has long been thought to 0:01:50.040 --> 0:01:53.880 be named for one of bradley slaves. A few years ago, 0:01:54.480 --> 0:01:57.920 some construction workers at the county courthouse uncovered a letter 0:01:58.480 --> 0:02:02.520 that appeared to be from Bradley son and confirmed the suspicion. 0:02:02.960 --> 0:02:06.360 We found that letter where Hugh Bradley Junior fled out, 0:02:06.440 --> 0:02:11.519 said it, and it's still at the courthouse. I've been 0:02:11.600 --> 0:02:14.800 trained to give them the city to get it and 0:02:14.880 --> 0:02:17.799 you know, make some kind of permanent display in city hall. 0:02:18.400 --> 0:02:21.920 But I am here in this rural corner of Arkansas 0:02:22.600 --> 0:02:27.560 to investigate another local mystery. This one has to do 0:02:27.760 --> 0:02:38.320 with vaccines in Arkansas. We have chosen the path of 0:02:38.440 --> 0:02:43.160 personal responsibility. The state is wide open. We aren't mandating 0:02:43.280 --> 0:02:46.840 masks or vaccinations. We know what we must do and 0:02:46.840 --> 0:02:49.560 for the most part, our Kansans have done the hard work. 0:02:50.320 --> 0:02:54.560 The big task before us now is to vaccinate more Arkansas. 0:02:54.720 --> 0:03:00.000 That's Arkansas Governor Asa Hutchinson talking about the major challenge 0:03:00.480 --> 0:03:05.080 facing the state. This was in July and the state's 0:03:05.160 --> 0:03:09.320 vaccination rate had stalled, while the super contagious delta variant 0:03:09.360 --> 0:03:14.079 was spreading rapidly and hospitals were beginning to reach capacity. 0:03:15.200 --> 0:03:19.280 Things were starting to look very grim, But there was 0:03:19.400 --> 0:03:24.440 one bright spot. There is good news and reason for optimism. 0:03:24.680 --> 0:03:28.280 One single county had met a goal he had set 0:03:28.320 --> 0:03:33.440 for vaccination. More than of the population of Bradley County 0:03:33.480 --> 0:03:37.040 has been fully vaccinated. In the coming weeks. I expect 0:03:37.080 --> 0:03:40.000 more counties to reach that interim goal than I said, 0:03:40.560 --> 0:03:43.600 and then we can go up from there. When I 0:03:43.640 --> 0:03:48.360 heard about this, I googled Bradley County and I was 0:03:48.440 --> 0:03:51.720 kind of shocked. It's not the sort of place you 0:03:51.720 --> 0:03:56.720 would expect to be leading anywhere in vaccination rates. Bradley 0:03:56.920 --> 0:03:59.920 is not only extremely rural, but it has a size 0:04:00.000 --> 0:04:03.960 will black and Latino population, and a majority of people 0:04:04.000 --> 0:04:08.200 there voted for Donald Trump in the last election. Those 0:04:08.400 --> 0:04:12.240 are all of the demographics we know are most often 0:04:12.360 --> 0:04:16.920 associated with vaccine hesitancy in America. When Bradley hit the 0:04:17.680 --> 0:04:22.239 mark in July, other counties in Arkansas had vaccination rates 0:04:22.360 --> 0:04:28.760 of half that Bradley County was an outlier. I wanted 0:04:28.960 --> 0:04:41.680 to know why, and that is what led me here 0:04:41.480 --> 0:04:48.840 here to a creaky old rocking chair and Rob Reep's 0:04:48.920 --> 0:04:53.840 art gallery on Main Street in Warren, Arkansas, surrounded by 0:04:53.960 --> 0:04:57.599 oil paintings of local landscapes and fish and country cottages. 0:04:58.920 --> 0:05:08.600 It all starts with Greg Reep's wife, Beverly. It's been 0:05:08.640 --> 0:05:12.960 a tough few months here in the US. We waited 0:05:13.000 --> 0:05:15.440 for the vaccines, that life could get back to normal, 0:05:16.440 --> 0:05:19.080 and when the vaccine came, we got a glimpse of 0:05:19.080 --> 0:05:23.560 that for only a very brief moment. Now we're in 0:05:23.560 --> 0:05:28.159 the throes of yet another wave of the virus. Masks 0:05:28.160 --> 0:05:32.800 are back, concerts are being canceled again. It's all a 0:05:32.880 --> 0:05:37.800 little too much like the movie Groundhog Day. And one 0:05:37.839 --> 0:05:41.400 of the biggest things keeping us here in this seemingly 0:05:41.760 --> 0:05:46.280 never ending pandemic is the number of people who still 0:05:46.760 --> 0:05:50.839 do not want to get vaccinated. Right now, about a 0:05:50.960 --> 0:05:55.240 quarter of Americans eligible for the vaccine are still holding out. 0:05:56.640 --> 0:06:01.279 That number is not nearly good enough, especially with the 0:06:01.400 --> 0:06:05.600 ultra contagious Delta variant and an increasing number of cases 0:06:05.640 --> 0:06:12.320 among vaccinated people. The virus is a powerful invader, and 0:06:12.440 --> 0:06:15.560 right now they're just aren't enough of us armed to 0:06:15.680 --> 0:06:20.800 really fight back. One of the most crucial questions right 0:06:20.800 --> 0:06:24.200 now is how to get those people still holding out 0:06:24.839 --> 0:06:29.720 to finally get vaccinated. So I went to Bradley County 0:06:31.000 --> 0:06:35.480 looking for answers. I'm Bloomberg News health reporter Kristin B. 0:06:35.640 --> 0:06:52.960 Brown for the Prognosis podcast. This is Doubt, Okay, So 0:06:53.000 --> 0:06:55.520 now we're back to the story of Greg and Beverly. 0:06:56.200 --> 0:06:59.800 We both grew up here in Warren, and she was 0:06:59.839 --> 0:07:03.480 about two years younger than me, but we literally met 0:07:03.800 --> 0:07:07.200 in school, but we actually kind of got to know 0:07:07.320 --> 0:07:09.160 each other. And there was a place right down the 0:07:09.240 --> 0:07:12.040 street down here that's a truck store now, but it 0:07:12.160 --> 0:07:14.560 was a dairy coming back in those days, and that's 0:07:14.600 --> 0:07:19.760 where all the school kids hung out. Boy meets girl. 0:07:20.320 --> 0:07:25.120 Eventually they get married. Greg went into politics and Beverly 0:07:25.240 --> 0:07:27.800 became a history teacher at the local high school and 0:07:27.840 --> 0:07:31.760 middle school. Well, she went through a couple of generations 0:07:31.760 --> 0:07:34.800 of folks, you know, taught people and then talked her 0:07:34.920 --> 0:07:38.880 kids and even a few grandkids. I think before she 0:07:38.880 --> 0:07:43.840 she finally retired, Greg isn't kidding. I talked to several 0:07:43.920 --> 0:07:47.040 people and Warren who had had Beverly as a teacher themselves, 0:07:47.600 --> 0:07:51.640 and then she taught their kids. People have a lot 0:07:51.800 --> 0:07:54.840 to say about her here, about how she made history fun, 0:07:55.320 --> 0:07:59.760 and especially about her legendary week long eighth grade trips 0:07:59.800 --> 0:08:03.840 to Washington, d C. This is how Michelle Weaver, a 0:08:03.920 --> 0:08:07.040 doctor at the hospital, put it. I think everyone knows 0:08:07.040 --> 0:08:09.120 Beverly read. She was my teacher. You know, she was 0:08:09.160 --> 0:08:11.160 my daughter's teacher and my son's teacher, and we all 0:08:11.240 --> 0:08:13.920 loved her. And she took a group of students to 0:08:13.960 --> 0:08:17.400 our in DC every year, and you know, really helped 0:08:18.280 --> 0:08:23.120 mold people us into a well rounded adults. Beverly was 0:08:23.160 --> 0:08:28.960 a local icon. Two years ago she retired, and in March, 0:08:30.360 --> 0:08:33.360 she her husband, her son, and her daughter in law 0:08:33.880 --> 0:08:38.560 embarked on her dream vacation, a whirlwind five day tour 0:08:39.160 --> 0:08:44.040 of England and France and Christmas of two thousand eighteen. 0:08:45.360 --> 0:08:50.160 She sprung it on the whole family had a video there. 0:08:50.320 --> 0:08:52.400 She'd worked it out for the travel agency in the 0:08:52.440 --> 0:08:57.040 Little Rock and it's just was narrated telling us where 0:08:57.080 --> 0:09:00.280 we're all gonna go. We were all she set. They're 0:09:00.640 --> 0:09:05.160 kind of astonished she had all arranged, all done. By 0:09:05.160 --> 0:09:07.439 the time the Reef family was ready to set off 0:09:07.520 --> 0:09:12.200 on that dream vacation, COVID was in the headlines. It 0:09:12.280 --> 0:09:16.160 was spreading in China and Italy, but in much of 0:09:16.160 --> 0:09:19.200 the world it still seemed like a far off threat. 0:09:20.200 --> 0:09:23.320 The Reefs were a little concerned, but there was no 0:09:23.440 --> 0:09:27.800 guidance against traveling abroad yet. We even talked to missing 0:09:27.840 --> 0:09:30.760 medical folks around here and they said, you just wash 0:09:30.800 --> 0:09:35.280 your hands, keep everything clean. So in early March, off 0:09:35.320 --> 0:09:39.360 the Reef family went to London and Normandy and Paris 0:09:39.360 --> 0:09:44.600 and Versailles. She had a blast, and so did your 0:09:44.800 --> 0:09:47.400 son and daughter in law. And I'll have to bid 0:09:47.480 --> 0:09:50.480 Idea too. It was it was just kind of the 0:09:50.480 --> 0:09:55.880 trip of the last day. Meanwhile, in those early March days, 0:09:56.640 --> 0:10:00.920 COVID was spreading rapidly across Europe. Cases were starting to 0:10:00.960 --> 0:10:03.520 take up in the US, to new cases being reported 0:10:03.520 --> 0:10:07.360 in California, Oregon, Washington State, Rhode Island, and Illinois over 0:10:07.360 --> 0:10:11.240 the weekend. The coronavirus has now entered a devastating new phase. 0:10:11.400 --> 0:10:15.600 The trajectory consider continues to go straight up. It's going 0:10:15.679 --> 0:10:17.760 straight up. That blue passenger on a flight that was 0:10:17.760 --> 0:10:20.679 traveling from New York to Florida last night has tested 0:10:20.720 --> 0:10:24.720 positive for coronavirus. This now makes the first coronavirus death 0:10:24.760 --> 0:10:29.120 confirmed in the US. The number of affected states cases 0:10:29.160 --> 0:10:39.160 and deaths will continue to rise. The family touchdown back 0:10:39.200 --> 0:10:43.600 home on March twelve, the day after President Trump announced 0:10:43.600 --> 0:10:47.240 a thirty day travel suspension to most of Europe and 0:10:47.440 --> 0:10:52.520 the World Health Organization declared the coronavirus outbreak was officially 0:10:53.000 --> 0:10:57.360 a pandemic. I remember failing a little bit relieve when 0:10:57.360 --> 0:11:00.320 we got on the plane to you know it out 0:11:00.480 --> 0:11:05.200 and then didn't turn out some good. Later on, about 0:11:05.200 --> 0:11:09.720 a week after they returned home, Beverly started to feel sick. 0:11:11.080 --> 0:11:14.880 She was also having a little trouble breathing. So with 0:11:15.000 --> 0:11:18.800 COVID now everywhere in the headlines, they decided to go 0:11:18.920 --> 0:11:22.800 to the local hospital. Greg says Beverly didn't seem that 0:11:22.880 --> 0:11:27.640 sick to him, but her illness quickly progressed. It was COVID. 0:11:30.040 --> 0:11:32.640 She had had open heart surgery. She had to beat 0:11:32.720 --> 0:11:36.040 this anyway. I mean, she's just struggled a little bit 0:11:36.040 --> 0:11:37.679 with it. But she was up in Gunman. I mean, 0:11:37.720 --> 0:11:40.640 it wasn't you know what. She was bedfast or something 0:11:40.720 --> 0:11:43.839 like that. But we carried her to the hospital down 0:11:43.880 --> 0:11:46.040 here and they said, we'd think we'd better go ahead 0:11:46.040 --> 0:11:48.440 and get you the little walk and which is where 0:11:48.440 --> 0:11:50.839 are bigger hospitals and all they got her. She went 0:11:50.880 --> 0:11:57.960 to St. Vincent's up there and she stayed all thirty 0:11:57.960 --> 0:12:02.040 two days. I think for most of those thirty two 0:12:02.120 --> 0:12:07.560 days Beverly was on a ventilator. The family was quarantining 0:12:07.600 --> 0:12:12.199 at home. Greg and his son tested positive for COVID too, 0:12:13.000 --> 0:12:17.760 Their daughter in law, Strangely, was completely fine. No one 0:12:17.880 --> 0:12:20.960 could go and see Beverly and she was too out 0:12:21.000 --> 0:12:24.280 of it to even talk on the phone. Greg called 0:12:24.320 --> 0:12:29.440 the hospital every single day for an update. It was 0:12:29.480 --> 0:12:32.120 the most difficult thing I've ever been through in my life. 0:12:32.600 --> 0:12:34.640 And what a't evis fault that I couldn't go in 0:12:34.679 --> 0:12:36.840 and seeing her, But it just was, it was just 0:12:38.120 --> 0:12:42.320 it was torture not really knowing how bad she was. 0:12:42.520 --> 0:12:47.760 And eventually the family decided to take her off of 0:12:47.840 --> 0:12:53.080 the ventilator. Beverly's lungs weren't really working, and then her 0:12:53.120 --> 0:12:57.520 kidneys started feeling. She was in a medically induced coma, 0:12:57.640 --> 0:13:00.360 and doctors told Greg they weren't sure that she would 0:13:00.360 --> 0:13:04.280 ever wake up. Their family. Physician back and Warren pulled 0:13:04.320 --> 0:13:06.520 some strings so that Greg and his son could see 0:13:06.520 --> 0:13:09.760 her one last time. We had to put on space 0:13:09.880 --> 0:13:12.920 suits and the whole thing, but they did let us 0:13:12.960 --> 0:13:19.560 go in there and literally see her before she passed away. 0:13:19.880 --> 0:13:21.840 You know, I was still, I guess I was praying 0:13:21.880 --> 0:13:25.160 for a miracle still that when they, you know, took 0:13:25.160 --> 0:13:27.520 her off a ventilator, maybe she would start, you know, 0:13:27.600 --> 0:13:33.679 getting better or something. But it she did didn't, And 0:13:34.440 --> 0:13:36.520 I don't know, I don't know how to explain it. 0:13:42.440 --> 0:13:48.959 On Saturday, a Beverly passed away at sixty three years old. 0:13:50.080 --> 0:13:54.400 The Arkansas Times and the Arkansas Democrat Gazette reported the 0:13:54.440 --> 0:13:58.920 news of Beverly's death, touting the role she played and 0:13:59.040 --> 0:14:02.520 helping young our Kanson see more of the world outside 0:14:02.520 --> 0:14:06.760 of the state. Former students sent messages to the family 0:14:07.400 --> 0:14:10.960 about how she had touched their lives, and Bill Clinton, 0:14:11.600 --> 0:14:13.959 who knew the couple from the world of state politics, 0:14:14.679 --> 0:14:21.160 called Greg with his condolences. Gregg told me that initially 0:14:21.800 --> 0:14:25.560 he blamed himself for letting the family take that trip, 0:14:26.960 --> 0:14:31.240 but they couldn't have possibly known what would happen. None 0:14:31.280 --> 0:14:34.960 of us did. It was so early in the pandemic, 0:14:35.720 --> 0:14:39.360 back before anyone was wearing face masks or social distancing 0:14:39.520 --> 0:14:44.200 or even calling it a pandemic. Beverly was only the 0:14:44.280 --> 0:14:48.400 thirty six death in Arkansas at the time of her passing. 0:14:49.000 --> 0:14:53.720 There's still weren't very many cases there at all, especially 0:14:53.800 --> 0:14:57.119 in the rural parts of the state and urban areas. 0:14:57.160 --> 0:15:00.240 People spend a lot more time in crowds moving from 0:15:00.280 --> 0:15:04.120 place to place in city to city, but in areas 0:15:04.160 --> 0:15:09.880 like Bradley County people are just more isolated. But this 0:15:09.960 --> 0:15:14.920 tragedy would have a silver lining. The impact of Beverly's 0:15:14.960 --> 0:15:19.960 death would be far greater than Greg could have ever imagined. 0:15:26.360 --> 0:15:30.000 You know, people liked her, loved her, appreciated her, and 0:15:30.200 --> 0:15:35.840 for her to die, uh and she just retired. I 0:15:35.840 --> 0:15:38.600 think it really called the attention to a lot of people. 0:15:40.120 --> 0:15:45.240 This is Dr Kerry Pennington. Like most people here, he 0:15:45.280 --> 0:15:49.760 has lived in Bradley County almost his whole life. One 0:15:49.760 --> 0:15:53.600 of his ancestors was actually a founding settler of the county, 0:15:54.200 --> 0:15:56.960 and for decades now he's been just one of a 0:15:57.000 --> 0:16:02.080 few physicians in the area. He told me, Beverly's death 0:16:02.480 --> 0:16:07.400 shook the whole county. Some people even blamed the rep 0:16:07.480 --> 0:16:09.880 family for bringing the virus to this part of the 0:16:09.920 --> 0:16:14.760 state and launched attacks at them online. But as the 0:16:14.840 --> 0:16:19.200 story of Beverly's battle with COVID spread in Bradley County, 0:16:19.920 --> 0:16:23.000 the main impact was that people started to take the 0:16:23.080 --> 0:16:28.440 virus very seriously. They had heard about Beverly's month on 0:16:28.520 --> 0:16:31.800 a ventilator and how hard it was on the Repe family. 0:16:33.040 --> 0:16:36.320 This was someone a lot of people here knew and 0:16:36.480 --> 0:16:42.680 cared about. Her story had an impact before the pandemic 0:16:42.840 --> 0:16:47.760 could become so politicized. The people of Bradley County. We're 0:16:47.840 --> 0:16:51.320 paying attention, you know, people will talk about it, and 0:16:51.560 --> 0:16:54.760 people would come in shop. And then over the next 0:16:54.800 --> 0:16:57.680 two or three months, as more people got it and 0:16:57.720 --> 0:17:03.800 more people to add, it just became more a large 0:17:03.840 --> 0:17:08.719 awareness that this was serious. Most people know what's going 0:17:08.760 --> 0:17:13.359 to own and uh, it's not like Little Rock or 0:17:13.560 --> 0:17:17.600 l A, where you know there may be sixty year 0:17:17.680 --> 0:17:20.360 seventy people die when that set of down the last week. 0:17:20.400 --> 0:17:23.840 But he was talking about Dr Pennington is why I 0:17:23.920 --> 0:17:27.400 came to Arkansas in the first place. I had read 0:17:27.440 --> 0:17:31.760 about Bradley County and called him up asking what was 0:17:31.800 --> 0:17:36.000 going on there. He told me about Beverly and said 0:17:36.160 --> 0:17:39.359 that he thought her death was a major factor and 0:17:39.480 --> 0:17:43.600 why people there were getting the shot. And then when 0:17:43.640 --> 0:17:48.920 the vaccine became available, they were aware and smart enough, 0:17:48.960 --> 0:17:51.520 I think, to realize that they need to do get it. 0:17:51.560 --> 0:17:54.919 But Beverly is really just the start of this story. 0:17:55.200 --> 0:17:58.960 When I got to Arkansas, it became clear that Dr 0:17:59.040 --> 0:18:04.280 Pennington was kind of selling his own role short. If 0:18:04.320 --> 0:18:07.560 you're trying to stop the spread of a deadly virus, 0:18:08.160 --> 0:18:11.480 there are actually some advantages to being in a rural 0:18:11.520 --> 0:18:16.560 community like Bradley County. Social distancing, of course, is sort 0:18:16.600 --> 0:18:20.840 of naturally built into your way of life, but more importantly, 0:18:21.760 --> 0:18:26.440 everyone knows each other. As we've talked about throughout this series, 0:18:26.880 --> 0:18:31.720 trust is really a single most important factor in getting 0:18:31.760 --> 0:18:36.960 people to vaccinate. Misinformation certainly doesn't help inspire people to 0:18:37.000 --> 0:18:40.959 get vaccinated, but it often isn't the root cause of 0:18:41.000 --> 0:18:47.240 someone's hesitancy. Distrust makes that misinformation seem way more believable. 0:18:47.880 --> 0:18:50.960 The pandemic has made a whole lot of people more 0:18:51.040 --> 0:18:54.840 mistrustful of what the public health establishment has to say. 0:18:55.920 --> 0:18:57.440 But if you went to high school with the local 0:18:57.440 --> 0:19:01.640 physician or the widower, but COVID victim was a chaperone 0:19:01.720 --> 0:19:04.320 on your eighth grade trip to d C, we were 0:19:04.400 --> 0:19:07.920 way more likely to believe them when they say vaccines 0:19:07.960 --> 0:19:13.280 are good. When the pandemic hit, the public health community 0:19:13.400 --> 0:19:18.760 in Bradley County immediately understood how crucial the role that 0:19:18.800 --> 0:19:41.040 they would play here was MC how's it going good? 0:19:42.240 --> 0:19:47.000 Looking for more answers. I visited the local hospital. It's 0:19:47.040 --> 0:19:51.639 really small, it only has beds there. I talked to 0:19:51.680 --> 0:19:55.560 Michelle Weaver, who we heard from earlier. She's the county 0:19:55.600 --> 0:19:59.199 public health officer and a doctor at the hospital, and 0:19:59.240 --> 0:20:03.600 she says, everyone in the medical world and Bradley really 0:20:03.880 --> 0:20:06.639 joined forces as soon as we found out about COVID. 0:20:06.680 --> 0:20:08.560 I mean, we knew that it was coming to the US, 0:20:08.720 --> 0:20:12.679 we knew it was happening. Um we myself and some 0:20:12.760 --> 0:20:14.800 others we all got together and we made it like 0:20:14.840 --> 0:20:17.280 a group. And so at first we met I hope 0:20:17.320 --> 0:20:19.160 to get but before COVID hit here, we all actually 0:20:19.160 --> 0:20:21.679 all met one room. And after that first meeting decided 0:20:21.720 --> 0:20:24.120 that was a bad plan. I didn't think so many 0:20:24.119 --> 0:20:25.920 people from the community would show up. We kind of 0:20:25.920 --> 0:20:30.240 invided everyone, but um, the superintendence of both of the 0:20:30.280 --> 0:20:35.160 schools in this county came, you know, the police officers came, 0:20:35.320 --> 0:20:38.679 the fireman came, the head of the hospital came. You know. 0:20:38.920 --> 0:20:41.960 So you know, myself is representing the physicians in the 0:20:42.040 --> 0:20:45.879 area and UM, our mayor a big part of trying 0:20:45.920 --> 0:20:49.800 to make sure we get accurate information. UM and we 0:20:49.880 --> 0:20:52.400 all met together in a room as a big group 0:20:52.440 --> 0:20:54.840 to say we're going to come together as as one 0:20:55.160 --> 0:20:58.040 and support whatever we need to support to keep our 0:20:58.080 --> 0:21:02.240 county healthy. So that's kind of where it started. Dr 0:21:02.320 --> 0:21:05.360 Weaver said she and other doctors in the area were 0:21:05.400 --> 0:21:08.800 constantly texting to make sure everyone was on the same 0:21:08.840 --> 0:21:13.480 page about everything. They started a Facebook page to update 0:21:13.520 --> 0:21:17.720 the community. She would even post videos with helpful tips, 0:21:17.760 --> 0:21:20.359 like how to handle your teenager who was sick of 0:21:20.400 --> 0:21:25.199 staying home. They actually can be around their friends, but 0:21:25.280 --> 0:21:29.960 they should not be in close proximity or in large groups. UM. 0:21:30.160 --> 0:21:32.919 If they want to have a friend and they go 0:21:33.119 --> 0:21:36.560 and they keep their distance and they go fishing. UM. 0:21:36.560 --> 0:21:39.200 Those are kind of things. And when the vaccines rolled out, 0:21:39.880 --> 0:21:44.720 there was a concerted push to get people vaccinated. When 0:21:44.760 --> 0:21:47.960 I visited the hospital, Dr Weaver told me that just 0:21:48.080 --> 0:21:50.399 that morning she had tried to convince a nurse to 0:21:50.400 --> 0:21:53.880 get the vaccine for her teen son. She didn't know 0:21:53.960 --> 0:21:57.199 whether their talk had been successful, but she said her 0:21:57.240 --> 0:22:02.600 approach is always rooted in empathy and patience, even though 0:22:02.640 --> 0:22:07.440 it's obviously really frustrating that even colleagues at the hospital 0:22:07.520 --> 0:22:11.160 were questioning vaccines. If you get angry with people, you're 0:22:11.160 --> 0:22:13.520 going to get netwhere like if you go, oh, you're oh, 0:22:13.560 --> 0:22:16.680 you're a native and that doesn't work, you know. And 0:22:16.760 --> 0:22:19.480 so I've had arguments, and I don't really call them 0:22:19.560 --> 0:22:23.760 arguments discussions. I think that two logical adults should be 0:22:23.800 --> 0:22:26.919 able to sit down and have a discussion, and I 0:22:26.920 --> 0:22:29.640 should be able to say, you know, here's the facts 0:22:29.640 --> 0:22:35.480 about vaccine. Dr Pennington and his colleague Dr Joe Wharton 0:22:36.040 --> 0:22:38.760 sent nurses to vaccinate the football team at the high 0:22:38.760 --> 0:22:44.080 school and eventually also the entire eligible student body. The 0:22:44.160 --> 0:22:49.359 local state legislator, Jeff Wardlaw, invited Dr Pennington to talk 0:22:49.400 --> 0:22:52.120 to the staff at a center for disabled adults who 0:22:52.119 --> 0:22:55.880 are highly hesitant. Greg Reep and his family spoke out 0:22:56.119 --> 0:22:59.359 in the press and the community urging people to get 0:22:59.400 --> 0:23:03.960 the vaccine, and Tyler Staton, who runs a pharmacy in town, 0:23:04.840 --> 0:23:09.160 made it his personal mission to get everyone vaccinated. He says, 0:23:09.200 --> 0:23:13.679 at first the vaccines apply couldn't match the demand, but 0:23:13.720 --> 0:23:17.600 when that initial demand waned, he started his own efforts 0:23:17.640 --> 0:23:21.240 to bring vaccines to the people. I've gone to the 0:23:21.280 --> 0:23:24.760 nursing homes. UM. I've gone to home visits to help 0:23:24.800 --> 0:23:27.720 people um that can't get out and can't get a 0:23:27.800 --> 0:23:31.119 ride to come and get a vaccine. We've gone to 0:23:33.520 --> 0:23:38.640 manufacturing plants. UM. We have a couple of hardwood flooring 0:23:38.680 --> 0:23:43.280 plants here in town. We have um uh one that 0:23:43.880 --> 0:23:48.800 create manufacturing timbers and stuff like that to their plant, 0:23:48.920 --> 0:23:51.560 and it did vaccines that go on a monthly basis 0:23:51.600 --> 0:23:56.600 to some of those places. Tyler says his governing philosophy 0:23:56.960 --> 0:23:59.960 was to make sure that people had a few excuse 0:24:00.000 --> 0:24:03.399 says as possible to not get the vaccine. I mean 0:24:03.480 --> 0:24:05.440 some people may not get off until after we close, 0:24:05.520 --> 0:24:10.560 it says, you know, and other stores, the big chains 0:24:10.640 --> 0:24:13.040 may not have availability or they may not be able 0:24:13.080 --> 0:24:15.320 to get their shot there. You know. It just I 0:24:15.320 --> 0:24:17.720 tried to be flexible because I wanted to help the community. 0:24:17.800 --> 0:24:19.560 And and that's what we've done, and all of our 0:24:19.600 --> 0:24:24.520 pharmacists have done that to fless and be able to vascinate. 0:24:25.040 --> 0:24:29.000 And it was a collaborative effort, nurses and pharmacists working together. Um, 0:24:29.560 --> 0:24:31.800 the doctors were still running their clinics, but they'd send 0:24:31.840 --> 0:24:36.120 their their nurses to come help vaccinate, and pharmacists from 0:24:36.119 --> 0:24:38.879 from the local hospital she came with help me. So 0:24:39.240 --> 0:24:41.280 you know, it was a collaborative effort between all of 0:24:41.359 --> 0:24:46.159 us to try and get people have vascinated. Okay, so 0:24:46.359 --> 0:24:49.879 I'm guessing you're starting to get the picture here. It 0:24:49.880 --> 0:24:52.040 could almost be the plot of a feel good movie. 0:24:52.880 --> 0:24:56.760 The death of a beloved small town teacher spurs the 0:24:56.760 --> 0:25:01.639 community to band together against the a to defeat the 0:25:01.720 --> 0:25:06.000 evil virus. But how does that have anything to do 0:25:06.160 --> 0:25:13.760 with the rest of us? So before I go any further, 0:25:14.520 --> 0:25:19.040 let me first just say that Bradley County is not perfect. 0:25:20.000 --> 0:25:23.240 There are still a lot of hesitant people there and 0:25:23.280 --> 0:25:25.919 the latest surge of the virus has led to rising 0:25:25.960 --> 0:25:30.920 cases there like everywhere else in the state. But still 0:25:30.960 --> 0:25:35.119 today it is among the most vaccinated counties in Arkansas. 0:25:36.240 --> 0:25:40.520 According to the CDC. So far, more than sixty seven 0:25:41.119 --> 0:25:44.280 of the population over age twelve has been vaccinated with 0:25:44.359 --> 0:25:49.000 at least one shot, and its early success in vaccinating 0:25:49.840 --> 0:25:53.160 did buck the trend of similar regions across the country. 0:25:53.880 --> 0:25:56.960 If you just looked at the demographics of Bradley, you 0:25:56.960 --> 0:26:01.159 would expect the vaccination rate to be way lower. It 0:26:01.200 --> 0:26:03.679 turned out that there were a lot of reasons for 0:26:03.720 --> 0:26:07.320 why it was doing better. It kind of did everything 0:26:07.400 --> 0:26:10.080 you were supposed to do to convince people to get 0:26:10.080 --> 0:26:14.840 a shot. I think this underscores the power that local 0:26:15.520 --> 0:26:19.480 leaders at the community level can have in in convincing 0:26:19.560 --> 0:26:23.719 people to vaccinate. This is Matt Modem, a political scientist 0:26:23.840 --> 0:26:28.280 at Oklahoma State University. We also heard from him an 0:26:28.320 --> 0:26:31.800 episode four. Now, the way you don't want that to 0:26:31.880 --> 0:26:37.320 happen is by people getting sick and potentially dying and 0:26:37.400 --> 0:26:40.320 having that be the motivator for people. But it does 0:26:40.400 --> 0:26:43.639 underscore that when there's a trusted member of the community 0:26:43.640 --> 0:26:45.840 who lots of folks know, who lots of folks like, 0:26:46.440 --> 0:26:50.879 that really hits home for people. The very personal nature 0:26:51.400 --> 0:26:56.040 of this pandemic, these personal appeals talking about the risks 0:26:56.080 --> 0:26:59.640 that one face and and the the experiences they've had 0:26:59.640 --> 0:27:04.640 with the disease can be motivating. Uh. And so when 0:27:04.680 --> 0:27:07.000 you have that happening at a local level to people 0:27:07.040 --> 0:27:10.639 that are widely known, to people that are widely trusted, 0:27:11.000 --> 0:27:14.880 you absolutely have the ability to to get people um 0:27:14.920 --> 0:27:22.320 out and vaccinating in response. I know this probably seems 0:27:22.359 --> 0:27:25.600 like common sense. Of course, it makes a difference to 0:27:25.600 --> 0:27:28.800 have local figure heads out there supporting vaccination and talking 0:27:28.840 --> 0:27:32.119 to people on a personal level. But the thing is, 0:27:32.600 --> 0:27:38.440 this just isn't happening right now in most places. Too often, 0:27:38.920 --> 0:27:43.280 when people have concerns about vaccines, instead of being taken seriously, 0:27:44.000 --> 0:27:48.280 those concerns are just brushed aside. People are just expected 0:27:48.280 --> 0:27:52.159 to be logical and do the right thing, when in fact, 0:27:52.720 --> 0:27:56.960 if you stop to think about it, there is something totally, 0:27:57.080 --> 0:28:01.440 just inherently weird about getting an injection with the genetic 0:28:01.520 --> 0:28:06.760 material of a deadly virus. Too often, the approach is 0:28:06.800 --> 0:28:13.160 to find a war of feelings with facts. People wind 0:28:13.240 --> 0:28:18.280 up feeling ignored and disrespected, like no one cares about 0:28:18.280 --> 0:28:21.960 how they feel. This can send people on the fence 0:28:22.000 --> 0:28:26.040 about vaccines right into the arms of the anti vaxers 0:28:26.400 --> 0:28:30.000 who are working hard to spread rumors and conspiracy theories. 0:28:31.000 --> 0:28:34.520