One shot at a time: Albania battles the vaccine skeptics

By LLAZAR SEMINI
Associated Press

SUKTH, Albania (AP) — Albanian medical staff have launched a nationwide campaign taking medical teams door to door to convince unvaccinated people to get their shots against COVID-19. The small health center team at the Sukth commune, 33 kilometers (20 miles) west of the capital of Tirana,  faces a daily challenge to give 50-70 vaccine jabs a day, one third of them at home. They use personal contacts and repeated calls to convince people of the benefits of vaccines. So far they have managed to innoculate 45% of the local population. That’s much higher than 33% of Albania’s 2.8 million people who have gotten their shots so far. Their hardest challenge is fighting superstitions, conspiracy theories and a lack of trust in government.