SUNDRE — While overall vaccination rates across Alberta have not increased substantially since the government announced a financial incentive, many Sundre-area residents seem to have jumped on the opportunity to capitalize on what has largely been dubbed a bribe to increase immunization.
“Before (the Alberta government) announced the incentive and the third doses, we were slowing down quite a bit where we would only get a few vaccinations a week,” said Randi Jonker, pharmacy assistant at Sundre Pharmasave
“But now, we’re back up to I would say probably about 20 a week,” she said.
The uptick, she added, seemed to have occurred overnight following Premier Jason Kenney’s controversial announcement that the vaccine hesitant would get $100 debit card for signing up for either their first or second doses.
“That morning of the next day, we probably had like six calls,” said Jonker.
“It’s from the $100 — everybody’s asking for that,” she said. “We have quite a few people asking if we give the $100 or where they can get it from. We direct them to the Alberta government website.”
Although not a large number by city standards, she said the increase of a few vaccines a week prior to the announcement to nearly two dozen afterward was for a small town like Sundre “surprising.”
Others who had only just very recently decided to get vaccinated, however, were out of luck.
“We’ve had some people that had their first and second doses already, asking if they could qualify. But no, unfortunately,” she said.
Asked whether perhaps other factors played a role in prompting people to finally book appointments to get vaccinated, she confirmed other considerations were weighing on people’s minds.
“They’re not planning on travelling anywhere, but they just want to get the vaccine proof just in case some (measures) get implemented in Alberta,” she said.
The situation over at Sundre Family Pharmacy seemed essentially identical, with perhaps the only difference being staff there booking even more appointments.
“It has picked up, definitely,” said Erin Baumung, registered pharmacy technician and co-owner.
While hard to compare exactly the number of recent appointments compared with about a month or two ago, she said on Wednesday, Sept. 15 during a phone interview that, “We haven’t done this many a month ago in one day.”
On Friday, Sept. 10, she said their pharmacy administered approximately 40 doses.
“And a majority of those were first-dose people,” she said.
The following Saturday, Monday and Tuesday also saw noticeable increases numbering closer to roughly two dozen. While some of those bookings were for second doses, most were for first doses, she said.
Asked whether the so-called financial incentive was a motivating factor, she said, “Yeah, I’d say lots of them are.”
But others also expressed concerns about the potential for the reintroduction of restrictions.
“They’re seeing other provinces have a vaccine passport in order to get into a restaurant, and some people are worried that that’s going to happen and they won’t be able to do things,” she said.
As the fourth wave surges pushing Alberta’s health-care system to its limits and many other segments of society from the private to public sectors — such as football and hockey venues as well as universities and health-care settings — announce mandatory vaccinations, “people are starting to get ready for that,” she said.
Baumung encourages anyone who remains on the fence not to hesitate to contact the pharmacy.
“If they have any real questions about getting real answers about the vaccine, they’re welcome to call,” she said.
Other motivating factors
Over at Sundre Community Drug Mart, however, pharmacy manager Chris Aingworth described a much different experience.
When asked on Sept. 16 during a phone interview whether the financial incentive translated to an increase in appointments for vaccinations, Aingworth said, “Not really. I mean, there was a slight increase. But I didn’t see a heck of a lot of people coming in looking for the $100.”
The people who were coming in to ask about vaccinations, he explained, were largely doing so out of necessity as some employers, including Alberta Health Services, issued mandatory immunization for staff.
“Most of them that came in, were being forced by employers to get vaccinated,” he said candidly.
“I’ve probably had only about two people ask me about the $100. In my opinion, I don’t think a hundred bucks is a heck of lot of money to change somebody’s mind when they’re scared,” he said.
“If you really, really believe that this (vaccine) is going to do you harm, I don’t know if most people would put a hundred bucks ahead of their beliefs. Beliefs are incredibly strong. People have done weird things for beliefs in the past.”
Cutting through the noise
Aingworth said there’s an absence of consistent messaging from leaders throughout the country that has left many people afraid.
“I don’t know who should take up the reins, but somebody needs to bypass all the noise — I don’t know how, there’s so much noise out there — and allay people’s fears,” he said, adding some people are “terrified.”
“I’ve seen patients come in and they really don’t want to get the shot. But they’re scared that they’re going to not be able to take part in society, but they’re also scared that the shot is going to cause severe damage to them down the line,” he said.
“I can give them my knowledge, and usually that does allay fears quite a bit.”
But much more needs to be done to address the incessant spread of misinformation posted online, he said.
“It would be nice if all of the premiers got together and maybe gave some kind of unified voice, so that people can look at their leaders instead of this shotgun situation we have right now where each province is doing their own thing and everyone’s demonizing everyone else,” he said.
“It’s destroying the fabric of society, I think. It’s very sad. I’m seeing families being torn apart because one person vehemently doesn’t want to get vaccinated, and then their aged parents wants to get vaccinated and then there’s huge arguments. It’s really bad.”
Despite antibiotics and other potentially life-saving drugs having potentially adverse side effects, people have no problem picking up those prescriptions when they’re sick. Meanwhile, data regarding the COVID-19 vaccines gets cherry picked to disproportionately magnify the extremely rare risks, which by far are outweighed by the benefits, he said.
So, rather than essentially forcing people to get vaccinated, the pharmacist said, “we need to try and understand their position, and then try and help them understand that this is for their benefit. What I usually tell my patients, is that there’s no way I would be giving this shot if I thought it was dangerous.”
