Vaccine hesitancy will slow Nashvilles progress to move past Coronavirus – WKRN News 2

NASHVILLE, Tenn (WKRN) As Nashville makes significant strides to putting the coronavirus behind us, many are still hesitant on being vaccinated.

Dr. Alex Jahangir, the head of the Metro Coronavirus Task Force told News 2 that he understands vaccine hesitancy, but the more one waits to be vaccinated, the longer it will take for us all to get back to life pre-COVID.

The longer it takes to get a majority of us vaccinated, the longer it takes for us to put this thing behind us, the more people that will die in the meantime, so its really important for us to get vaccinated, Dr. Jahangir explained.

Nashville residents have stepped up, he said, showing an overwhelming response to getting the vaccine. Today, the number of vaccines distributed outnumbering those who have had the virus.

We have 113,000 Nashvillians that have received at least one dose of vaccine and 91,000 Nashvillians have become effected with COVID-19, so now we are at a tipping point where more people have received the vaccine than have been infected so this gives me hope that we are at a really good place moving forward, said Dr. Jahangir.

Looking ahead, he said there are only more opportunities to come. On Wednesday, the system briefly crashed as those eager to be vaccinated signed up fornext Saturdaysevent at Nissan Stadium where an additional 10,000 people will be vaccinated. All of the slots were taken within 2 hours.

That will make a huge impact, said Dr. Jahangir. Just on Monday, 11,000 Nashvillians signed up for our Music City Center [event] so Im really excited Nashvillians are signing up.

From availability to current phases, find vaccine information for every Tennessee county using News 2s Vaccine Tracker map.

Dr. Jahangir says there are lots of other options outside of city sites to get the vaccine, too.

Medical centers, Walmart, Kroger, varied qualified healthcare systems all have availability.

However, not everyone is jumping on board so quickly, only about 16 percent of Nashvilles population has been vaccinated.

I think vaccine hesitancy, as people are calling it is I understand, but what I would ask people to do is to learn about the vaccine and find out why they are hesitant, said Dr. Jahangir.

He urges people to do their research on credible sites like the CDCs where there is a section of common vaccine myths and facts, as well as a list of links to additional credible sources.

Up to this point, I have not seen any major, major side effects that give me a pause about the vaccine, any of the vaccines.

He said if we keep up at this rate, the end of the coronavirus is in sight.

I think if we can just do this for a few more months, I really believe by early Summer we will be at a place where it will be the Nashville you and I knew growing up, and it will be the Nashville we knew about a year ago, and I feel so comfortable making that statement.

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Vaccine hesitancy will slow Nashvilles progress to move past Coronavirus - WKRN News 2