Pago Pago, AMERICAN SAMOA — Creating mobile vaccination units in lieu of a three-day ASG shutdown next month is one of the solutions suggested by the American Samoa Chamber of Commerce to increase the local vaccination rate, which ASG wants at 90% or over — instead.

Chamber chairwoman Luisa Kuaea offered what she describes as “more nuanced solutions that could achieve the immunity goal while minimizing unintended consequences” in a Nov. 11th letter to COVID-19 Task Force chairman, Lt. Gov. Talauega Eleasalo Ale.

Kuaea made clear in the letter the “private sector is opposed” to ASG’s 3-day Stand Down — from Dec. 1st to Dec. 3rd — and its accompanying restricted movement order, as the government plans a mass vaccination in villages to increase the vaccination rate.

She also shared with the task force chair a few of the negative impacts an ASG shut-down would have on the various sectors of the community and economy. (See yesterday’s Samoa News edition for details.)

MOBILE VACCINATION UNIT

Instead of people going to designated vaccination sites, Kuaea suggested that it may be more effective to create “mobile vaccination units” that target those sectors of the population where vaccination rates are still low, e.g. elementary schools, high schools, and the college.

For example, she explained school-located vaccination programs could take place following the visit of a “vaccine ambassador” to a school and the schools’ parents and teachers association (PTA). The parents could be given consent forms to sign, providing approval for their child to receive the vaccination.

Mobile vaccination units could then be scheduled at the schools — while in session — with reminders to parents and children to sign their consent forms, she explained.

Partnering with the local Department of Education and private schools “for this type of targeted vaccination outreach would be more effective and less intrusive than a 3 day stand down,” she said.

As part of mobile vaccination units, she suggested Village Vaccination Programs — “going back to the basics and work[ing] directly” with lawmakers, pulenu’us, and matais.

“Organize and train them to become vaccine ambassadors,” she suggested, and noted that these officials can identify families in their villages/districts that have not yet been vaccinated and set up meetings with those families to understand their concerns and answer any questions they may have about the COVID-19 vaccine and encourage vaccination for the safety of the village, community, and islands.

Another mobile unit suggestion is “workplace vaccination programs” — to capitalize on “high traffic areas”, such as the American Samoa Community College, the two local banks, StarKist Samoa, Neil’s ACE Home Center, Cost-U-Less, etc. to host vaccination events.

“”Many employers have fully-vaccinated personnel at their locations of business which would provide a safe and effective location for a mobile vaccination unit,” said Kuaea. 

VACCINE EDUCATION & OUTREACH

According to the chairwoman, there is a lot of misinformation circulating in the community regarding the COVID-19 virus and its vaccines. And many are resistant to receive the vaccine because of misinformation. Additionally, it’s been reported that some church ministers on island are preaching against the vaccines to their congregations.

“This has led many believers to resist vaccination on supposed religious grounds. It is difficult to believe that another vaccination push or mandate will overcome the deep-seated beliefs of this segment of our population,” she claimed.

Furthermore, this segment has resisted the Health Department’s repeated invitations, the Protect AS One Festival and lotteries, and the $100 incentives because of what they’ve heard and firmly believe.

Kuaea suggested better education and “perhaps targeted outreach is what’s needed to displace the misinformation.”

“Better messaging strategies should be developed to better inform the public of the facts about COVID-19 and the vaccines,” she said and suggested that, perhaps, inviting the village chiefs, the ministers to a formal presentation with Hawaii’s DOH Dr. E. Titimaea and the local medical doctors can improve their understanding and change their messaging in the villages and churches.

She pointed out that that Dr. Titimaea presented an excellent, easy to follow slide presentation on COVID-19 and the vaccines in “our native tongue” to Tagata Tutu Fa’atasi Alliance of American Samoa members in preparation for repatriation.

“We could organize and train vaccine ambassadors to directly visit schools, PTAs,  workplaces, and villages to communicate these same messages,” she further suggested.

REVISIT THE DATA

Another solution recommended by Kuaea is revisiting the data used by the task force to reach this decision on mass vaccination, saying that, initially, an outdated estimate was used for the total population in American Samoa.

“Since the 2020 Census’s release, we now have a new population number,” she reminds Talauega, who was also informed of some important information from the 2020 Census count.

She said the rules required the Census enumerator to include those relatives who were not currently living in the home. For clarity, youth who were off island for school and the military were to be counted in the household total.

And she explained that last month a group of young adults were asked for their perspective as to why their population segment — ages 21-30 — has not reached the vaccination goal.

“The consensus from the group of young adults is that a majority of their high school graduating classmates (60-90%) were not living in American Samoa but off-island,” she said.

Kuaea posed another set of questions: “Should we not then revisit the data? Shall we reduce the denominator for calculating the vaccination target to account for these inaccurate figures?”

“Furthermore, not all vaccinated residents are reflected in the data from DoH. Many who have been vaccinated off-island and have repatriated are not being counted because their information has not been entered into the database yet,” she said.

Kuaea said the Chamber will survey local business owners to provide the most recent data on how many companies are fully vaccinated.

CONCLUSION

“We appreciate the opportunity to present these impacts, unintended consequences, and solutions to you and hope they will be considered in your upcoming discussions with the Governor concerning the proposed 3-day stand down,” she wrote to Talauega.

 “We firmly believe that a more nuanced approach can be more effective in achieving the herd immunity goal and will decrease unintended consequences on businesses, family incomes, and people’s lives,” she concluded.

A handful of business representatives — according to information received by Samoa News, that is circulating within the private sector — have suggested a two-day mass vaccination during the Thanksgiving weekend on Nov. 26, the day after Thanksgiving, and Saturday, Nov. 27th.

These dates were suggested since schools will be out for the Thanksgiving break, and employees — especially those from the private sector — are home with their family.

This suggestion was made if the government continues to insist on a mass vaccination shut down.