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A local grassroots organization is doing its part to fight the COVID-19 pandemic, including efforts to get more people vaccinated.
On Tuesday, Let's End COVID! members took part in a webinar to discuss ways to achieve their goals.
"We want to know who does not feel comfortable about getting the vaccine," Beth McMahon, emerita professor, Lock Haven University, COVID-19 Institutional Response Team, said.
The key to convincing people to be vaccinated against COVID-19, she said, is through education.
Knowledge about any issue usually translates to an attitude change, she noted.
A total of $50,000 from Lycoming County will fund a public health campaign by River Valley Health and Dental Center to educate the community about the need for vaccines and keeping safe from coronavirus.
County commissioner Rick Mirabito said the money would come from the county's share of federal COVID-19 funding.
"We know that public health issues are more effective when we educate people," he said.
River Valley Health and Dental Center President and CEO James Yoxtheimer said the health clinic is doing about 1,000 vaccines a week with another 4,000 people on the waiting list for shots.
However, he noted some people remain skeptical about vaccines.
"We are seeing people that say they don't want a vaccine for one reason or another," he said. "Our job is to ensure that people have the correct information."
Commissioner Scott Metzger said having enough vaccines on hand remains the big problem.
"We don't have enough of them," he said. "That is the issue."
Metzger said while he feels it's certainly wise to be vaccinated, no one can be forced to get one.
McMahon described the fight against COVID-19 as a "marathon."
She said now is not the time for people to let their guards down, despite the fatigue feel from the year-long pandemic.
"COVID fatigue is very real," she said. "We are all exhausted by this."
The real push for now, she said, is to get information out to people about the need for vaccines.
"What we need to do as a group of grassroots folks is get people ready," she said. "I think they (vaccines) are coming our way. We are at 2.5 million a day."
As of Tuesday, more than 1.5 million residents in the state had become fully vaccinated.
Metzger called for getting out the right information to the public.
"Misinformation destroys everything," he said.
Added Yoxtheimer: "It takes a community to say to it's members, 'Let's end COVID.'"
McMahon stressed that vaccines do work to protect people from coronavirus.
"Some people can't get the vaccine," she said.
She said it's only been a year since the pandemic began, and there remains a lot to learn about COVID-19.