In Puerto Rico, more than 73% of the population is fully vaccinated against covid-19. In the United States, the national average is slightly above 57%.
Puerto Rico, a US territory, has adopted some of the country’s most stringent pandemic containment measures.
“When the pandemic started, there was a lot of concern about the fact that we have a very fragile health system”, commented Mónica Feliú-Mójer, from the non-profit organization Puerto Rico Science, a NPR.
According to the official, everyone mobilized to do what was necessary to prevent the collapse of the island’s health system and the worst to happen.
In addition to social accountability, the high rate of vaccination – 73% of the population is fully inoculated against covid-19 – is also correlated with the rate of community transmission and the rate of positivity of tests carried out in the territory, which are extremely low.
Feliú-Mójer points out that one of the reasons for the success of vaccination is a difference in political culture, compared to the United States.
In the US, Republicans have consistently fought against mandatory mask-wear and vaccinations for personal freedom. “We don’t see this correlation between political ideologies and people’s willingness to be vaccinated or to wear masks,” said Feliú-Mójer, referring to Puerto Rico.
Furthermore, although there are few groups of deniers in Puerto Rico, there is generally a “very good” historical acceptance of vaccines.
“We have to adopt different strategies to reach different audiences and understand what makes them vaccinated or not,” said the official.
Daniel Colón-Ramos, adviser to the Puerto Rican Government, stresses that it is also important to assess the poverty rate in Puerto Rico (which is 43.5%, according to the Census office), and compare it with that of the United States (11.4%).
“Experience with vaccines in places like Puerto Rico and Navajo shows that when resources are distributed equitably and when local scientists and health care leaders are able to drive their own strategies, they can have a performing better than most US jurisdictions“, wrote in the Twitter.
The experience with vaccines in places like Puerto Rico and the Navajo nation shows that when resources are distributed equitably AND when local scientists and health care leaders are able to direct their own strategies, they can perform better than most US jurisdictions 2/
— Daniel Colón Ramos (@dacolon) October 25, 2021
On the same social network, Ashish Jha of the Brown University School of Public Health wrote that the “fabulous” vaccination efforts in Puerto Rico “received very little attention.”
So how has PR done it?
Best I can tell, they’ve done this largely by not tying vaccines to politics
They pay less attention to mainland politics
All their political parties actively support vaccinations
And generally, political identify & vaccinations are not intermixed
5/6
— Ashish K. Jha, MD, MPH (@ashishkjha) October 17, 2021
“The best I can say is that they were very successful at not link vaccines to policy”, he stressed. Puerto Ricans “pay less attention to their country’s politics. All its political parties actively support vaccines. And, in general, politics and vaccines don’t mix.”
