By Lindsay Peyton
How a small Texas town doubled it’s COVID-19 vaccination rate in a month
Pastor Mike Cline was relieved to receive his first vaccine. However, when he headed in for the shot, he was surprised to find that not a lot of other people were there waiting for vaccines, especially persons from the Latino community. He began brainstorming a way to combat vaccine hesitancy but was not sure which approach to take or how to address the issue.
After all, Cline had called the hospital when vaccines first became available months earlier. “You are welcome to use our building,” he told them.
His church Tennison Memorial UMC has hosted the Mt. Pleasant Community Health Fair for more than a decade in partnership with Titus Regional Medical Center. Already, the congregation had a strong relationship with the local medical community.
Cline was more than willing to open the church to become a vaccine hub. The supply of available vaccines, however, was limited at the time.
As doses became more available, the pastor realized that the demand was not as high as expected. In fact, across Texas, vaccine hesitancy is high. The early demand to get vaccines has ended, and now the task is now convincing those with reservations to change their minds.
Mt. Pleasant, Texas is no exception. According to the “Texas Tribune,” the town is lagging behind the rest of the state, with about 34 percent of residents receiving at least one dose of the vaccine compared to 51 percent statewide.
“There’s a lot of distrust and fear,” Cline said. “I know the community. Most aren’t going to go to a civic center with the military. A lot of them don’t trust that. We needed to give them the opportunity to feel comfortable.”
He was convinced that the church could help but wasn’t sure how. Then, he got a call from a school nurse, explaining that the Texas Department of State Health Services was in search of a building to set up a vaccination clinic. “Is there any way they could use your building?” she asked.
Working together on vaccinations
“I said, ‘Are you kidding? I’ve been trying to do this for months,’” Cline recalled. “I was super excited. It was perfect. I said, ‘Absolutely. Come on down.’”
It felt like the answer to his prayers.
“Because of all we do in the community, the neighborhood around us knows and trusts us,” Cline said. “We have a long history of feeding the neighborhood, holding the health fair; there are a lot of links between the community and the church.”
The first task for the church was spreading the word, he explained. The congregation ran public service announcements on public radio. Members reached out to community organization Northeast Texas Unidos, who advertised on social media.
“We made hundreds of phone calls,” Cline said. “We put it on the radio and the newspaper. We sent a note to every school in the area.”
He offered to bring in nurses and doctors to help the Texas Department of State Health Services “But they come with a big group of people to pull this off,” he said. “We just opened the church doors and said let us know what you need. We got the building set up and the advertising out.”
One of the most important parts of their pitch was stressing that the vaccine would be free of charge, Cline added. He explained that many in need of the shot do not have health care or insurance and could be reluctant to seek medical care. “We wanted to make sure to remove every obstacle, so they would feel comfortable coming,” he said,
Tennison Memorial UMC wound up hosting a vaccine clinic four days in May and two days in early June. Then, they opened for a third occasion on Friday, June 18 – to provide second doses and reach more people. All three vaccines were available.
Vaccination rate doubled
Cline said the number of those vaccinated in Mt. Pleasant doubled, thanks to the Texas Department of State Health Services. He recommends that other churches interested in hosting a clinic contact the department.
“They’re really prepared,” he said. “If you open your doors for them, they can come in and go to work.”
Cline appreciates having the opportunity to provide a space for the vaccinations – and to help advertise the effort locally. “I felt fantastic,” he said. “It was the right thing to do. I’m astounded more churches aren’t doing this. It’s what we should be doing if we care about people and love our neighbors.”
Cline said that he has performed more funerals in the past few months that in any other stretch of time. “COVID is a killer,” he added. “I don’t understand, if we’re Christ-like, why would we not want to help people be safe and their families stay safe from this virus?”
He has heard one after another horror story about the virus during the pandemic. “It’s the right thing to help people and protect people,” he said. “It’s also relationship-building. It’s caring for our neighbors – and that’s what we should be doing as a church.”