Spectrum

As of Jan. 13, the Athens County Ohio Health Department has vaccinated only 438 of its approximately 65,000 population for a frustratingly low .67 percent. Meanwhile, the county remains one of the counties in Ohio that is in greatest danger of COVID-19 spread. Athens County is a rural Appalachian County in Southeast Ohio that also houses a major state university – Ohio University. Athens County is indicative of many rural counties across America. The Spectrum Podcast decided to look deeper into this issue Why is the number of vaccinations so low? The answer is lack of supply of vaccine, according to Dr. James R. Gaskell, Athens City-County Health Commissioner and Medical Director. Each Thursday or Friday, the local Health Department is notified by the Ohio Department of Health of the number of vaccine doses it will receive on the following Monday. The trickle-down of the vaccine from the manufacturers to the federal government, to the states and then to local rural areas is not flowing smoothly. For exam