The Abilene-Taylor County Public Health District has been scheduling vaccination clinics for community members 16-years-old and older at various locations in the city.

Upcoming clinics include the following:

• Tuesday, April 13 from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. at the Abilene Convention Center (Pfizer vaccine administered)
• Wednesday, April 14 from 1:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. at the Abilene Convention Center (1-dose Johnson & Johnson vaccine administered; ages 18+)
• Thursday, April 15 from 12:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. at the Abilene Convention Center (Pfizer vaccine administered)

Christine Lucio, assistant health services director for the Abilene-Taylor County Public Health District, said that anywhere from 1,500-2,000 doses are given at each clinic with a total of 40,000 people vaccinated so far.

“We are really proud of the hard work that everyone is putting in to make sure people are healthy and safe,” Lucio said.

However, she said there is still growing disinterest in getting vaccinated among members of the community with multiple factors being the motivation.

“Some are concerned about the side effects, but I think it’s important to remind people that actually getting COVID-19 is much more severe than any side effect,” Lucio said. “Another factor is that our numbers have gone down which I think has caused concern to go down.”

Regarding these factors, Lucio said she wants to remind others that getting the vaccine means protecting others at risk where the vaccine might be ineffective for them, children under the age of 16 and the Abilene community which shows increased statistics of elderly and obese people.

“Wanting to show love to your fellow man and show how we care about human life can be done by protecting them,” Lucio said. “If you truly care about others, I would think you would want to desire to protect others and [getting vaccinated] is a way one can do that.”

Annette Lerma, director of public health for the Abilene-Taylor County Public Health District, said that Texas is not out of the woods yet even though it is opened up.

“The most important thing the ACU community can do is get vaccinated,” Lerma said. “This reduces the ability of the virus to continue to transmit which decreases the likelihood that it will continue to mutate. As the virus mutates, it can evade the effectiveness of therapies and vaccines which puts us all at risk, young and old. We have a much better chance of returning to ‘normal’ if the majority of us get vaccinated.”

Scheduling an appointment can be done at abilenetx.gov/vaccineschedule or by calling (325) 692-5600.