A recent wave of corona infections in Urk prompted the general practitioners in that municipality to start a vaccination campaign themselves. General practitioner Wilco Blood, one of the initiators, saw dozens of infections in his practice in the past week and a half. On Thursday alone, five of his patients were hospitalized with covid.
Urkers may be able to get an injection from their GP from Monday. And GPs talk to their patients about corona and vaccination. They will not actively look for them, but they will bring it up with people who come to office hours. In doing so, they want to focus primarily on older and vulnerable patients.
All general practitioners in Urk are participating in the campaign. They had taken action before. In the summer they distributed a letter door-to-door, but it had little effect. “Because there were few infections at the time, people thought: ‘what should we do with it?'”, says GP Bloed.
Pfizer
Because although Urk has by far the lowest vaccination rate in the Netherlands, the number of corona cases remained limited. Until a week and a half ago. The wave of infections that has been engulfing Urk for about ten days has convinced the doctors that they must do something. In addition, their colleagues in Staphorst set an example.
The GPs will probably inject with Pfizer. They have experience with AstraZeneca, with which they vaccinated 60 to 65 year olds this spring, but this drug is no longer used. “It is less effective anyway and it has been negative in the news because of side effects,” said Bloed.
Vaccinating with Pfizer will be “logistically a challenge” for GPs, he thinks, because the vaccine must be stored at 70 degrees below zero. How the GPs can work with it is still being discussed with the GGD. “But I understand that an ampoule with six injections can still be kept outside the refrigerator for a few hours.”
national character
Blood does have some optimism. In recent days, he has seen that people are getting vaccinated after all. He foresees that the GPs will be very busy. “We are already very busy, but I think an extra effort will pay off later. If we don’t do anything now, we will be completely flooded by a contamination peak in January.”
It will still take a lot of tact and persuasion to convince the Urkers, because there is great distrust of the corono vaccines. Some preachers tell the faithful that the vaccines are the work of the devil. “We have to say that the vaccines do work.”
He does not think that the vaccination rate in Urk is so low mainly for religious reasons. “If you ask further questions, you will notice that it is mainly about conspiracy thinking, distrust of the government and aversion to the experienced coercion. That is part of the national character.”
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