In eastern Kentucky, groups use wrestling to promote the COVID-19 vaccine

Professional wrestlers are going to the mat to try to increase COVID-19 vaccinations in an eastern Kentucky county with one of the highest new case rates in the nation.

Wrestler Brandon Espinosa plans to get vaccinated against COVID-19 during the intermission of an Ohio Valley Wrestling match at Clay County High School on Friday, a move he hopes will inspire other wrestlers and fans.

“I’ve been sitting on the fence with the vaccine,” Espinosa said at a press conference on Monday. “Sometimes, it just takes a little extra push to get there.”

Ten fans who will step forward to get the shot will have a chance to win $ 500 at the event, signed by donors including the Kentucky Association of Health Plans.

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Organizers, including local officials, State Senate President Robert Stivers, and American Volunteers, hope it can become a model for other counties with delayed vaccination rates.

“We all want this behind us so we can grow and move on with our lives,” said Jennifer Hancock, CEO of Volunteers of America Mid-States.

The goal is to increase vaccination in a county where low vaccination rates and soaring COVID-19 cases have placed Clay County third in the nation in rates of new COVID-19 cases. Perry County, also in eastern Kentucky, ranks first, according to a New York Times data analysis.

Stivers, R-Manchester, acknowledged that more could have been done sooner in his home county, where less than half of the residents are vaccinated, but he hopes the new effort, called “Take One for the Team,” will bring vaccination rates. higher.

“This is probably something that should have been done months ago,” he said.

Monday’s press conference comes three weeks after Stivers said he and other local officials were planning a campaign to increase vaccinations in Clay County with incentives including pizza coupons, wristbands, cash prizes, sports equipment and tickets to the basketball.

By that time, about 32 percent of Clay County’s 20,500 residents had received at least one dose of the vaccine, according to the COVID-19 state website.

Vaccine rates have increased in Clay County during the new efforts.

Christie Green, director of the Clay County Health Department, said Clay County’s rate of fully vaccinated people was 33 percent at the end of August. It’s now about 40 percent, he said.

Strike rates have gone from about 75 per week to 150, Green said, but additional officials will continue to work.

“We still have a long way to go,” he said.

Co-owner of Ohio Valley Wrestling Matt Jones, a native of Middlesboro, told the press conference that the Clay and other county rankings are one of the reasons his organization joins the campaign to vaccinate more people.

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“It is devastating for me to see that six of America’s 10 highest-rate counties are in Kentucky, five of them in eastern Kentucky,” Jones said.

Jones, founder and host of Kentucky Sports Radio, also reported that Monday was his first day out of quarantine from a groundbreaking case of COVID-19 that he acquired, although he was fully vaccinated.

His experience is all the more reason to get the COVID-19 vaccine, he said.

“I had mild symptoms,” Jones said. “I don’t know if otherwise it would have gone like this.”

Hancock said the goal is to create a local personal campaign that other Kentucky counties could adopt to improve vaccination rates.

He recommends a campaign based on listening to people wary of the vaccine and respectful response.

Things that don’t work: “Tell them how stupid they are, yell at them,” Hancock said.

VOA was among the first Kentucky employers to require their employees to be vaccinated against COVID-19. The nonprofit agency has 650 employees in a four-state region that also includes Tennessee, West Virginia, and Indiana.

Very few employees chose to abandon the vaccine requirement announced in January, and nearly all are now vaccinated, according to the organization.

The Clay County campaign is also joined by the Health Plans Association, which includes six health insurance companies that handle most of the state’s Medicaid business.

They were criticized by the Gov. Andy Beshear for their low vaccination rate among the roughly 1.5 million Kentuckians enrolled in their Medicaid plans.

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As of July, only about 27 percent of Medicaid members eligible for the COVID-19 vaccine had received one, according to the State Cabinet for Health and Family Services, compared to more than 50 percent of Kentuckians in total.

Tom Stephens, the association’s executive director, said he doesn’t have the latest numbers of vaccinated Medicaid members, but the association is working to improve them.

“We keep trying to find a new approach to encourage people to get framed,” he said.

Reach Deborah Yetter at dyetter@courier-journal.com. Find her on Twitter at @d_yeter. Support strong local journalism by signing up today: https://ift.tt/2Z9C9oV.