A.G. Gancarski
COVID-19 appears to be waning in Duval County, with a positive testing rate of just 3.5% in Tuesday’s results. Yet local leaders warn of a different seasonal imminent threat.
On Wednesday morning, Jacksonville Mayor Lenny Curry pushed #FluVaxJax, with a vaccination campaign for seasonal influenza, a zippy hashtag carrying a serious message.
Curry, a second-term Republican elected in 2019 with no Democratic opposition, has seen much of his second term defined thus far by the COVID-19 pandemic, and his clear concern is that the fragile recovery could be derailed by a surge in flu cases.
The Mayor noted that in a normal year, the vaccination rate is just 37%, and his hope is that the campaign “increases it to 48% or more.”
“Getting your vaccine,” Curry said, “will prevent us from fighting two pandemics.”
The hopes, as Duval County Medical Society President Sunil Joshi said, is to avoid a potential “twindemic.”
“We have issues typically in the fall and winter in our hospitals. We come very, very close to capacity in any given year,” Joshi said, from “typical viruses.”
“There’s a very, very large concern among our hospitals that we may go overcapacity,” the doctor added.
Jacksonville has been lauded and panned in succession for its response to the coronavirus.
The city’s seeming early success in slowing the spread gave Curry an opportunity to present Jacksonville as a success story in the virus battle in testimony to Congress in the spring, and push to bring the Republican National Convention to town for what was envisioned at one point as a full-occupancy, mask optional indoor event.
However, an untimely case surge led President Donald Trump to scotch plans in late July to relocate the theatrics to the city.
Virus response, by and large, has offered the Mayor’s Office an opportunity to work with media partners, and today’s media blitz was no exception.
WJXT, the former homestead of Curry comms person Nikki Kimbleton, branded much of its morning programming around flu shots, with an exclusive interview with Curry and a segment before the official press conference showing on air personalities being inoculated.
