Will Vice President Kamala Harris' visit increase vaccine rates in South Carolina?
When Mark Masson heard that Vice President Kamala Harris was coming to Greenville for a national vaccination tour, he wondered what good it was going to do. Im not going to listen to some lady who wants to get my vote, he said. No one , not even the vice president, could tell the 59-year-old what he should or could do. No one, except maybe for his 91-year-old mother. He sat on the porch of a boarding house near West Greenville in a white T-shirt and black shorts. It had nearly been a month since he got his second shot at St. Francis Hospital. His mother had insisted repeatedly that he get his shots. So he did. Masson, who has a history of diabetes and smoking, along with a recent fall that had left his hip dislocated, was disabled and was particularly vulnerable to a virus that had affected many with comorbidities adversely. I would have been the first in line  bam! Gone! he said, raising his arms over his head. Beside him sat Donald Williams, 72, who has lived in Greenville all his life. Not even a month has passed since they met each other, but Masson had managed to achieve what William's daughter and nieces were begging him to do. He got him to go for the vaccine. "I only got it because he got it," Williams said leaning on his walking stick with a blue cap on his tilted on his head. Masson and Williams are two of the 7,428 fully vaccinated people currently living in their ZIP code and among the 2 million South Carolinians who have been fully vaccinated, according to the Department of Health and Environment Control data. Locally, Greenville County has fared better than most in the Upstate, but the state overall has lost nearly 10,000 citizens to the virus. With only 39% of its residents vaccinated, it is also among the least vaccinated states in the country. To spur more people toward vaccines,Vice President Harris is set to visit Greenville on June 14 as part of a national vaccination tour that aims at accelerating the goal of vaccinating 70% of U.S. adults by July 4, reported USA Today. What we know:Vice President Kamala Harris to visit Greenville  COVID-19 vaccination:South Carolina leans on honor system as majority of state now COVID vaccine eligible  The national vaccination rate sits at 64% and it is unlikely that the Biden administration will achieve its goal should the rate persist. Besides Harris, First Lady Jill Biden, Second Gentlemen Doug Emhoff and members of the cabinet are also journeying and making pit stops in North Carolina, Tennessee, Alabama and Louisiana over the next week. Gov. Henry McMasters office did not respond to voicemails and emails left by The Greenville News, but he did tweet that he welcomed Harris to South Carolina, though he believed that the vice presidents valuable time would be better spent at the border trying to fix the mess created by the Biden administrations failed immigration policies.  Rep. Bobby Cox, R-Greenville, also welcomed Harris but he said a good sign of leadership was knowing where one is needed. Right now, we dont need Vice President Harris on the border of South Carolina. We need her on the Mexico border handling the immigration crisis, he said. This comes following Harris recent visit to Guatemala and Mexico, where she told immigrants to not come" to the U.S. When asked about her comment, Harris said that she wanted to focus on the "root cause" of the migration crisis, reported NPR. Trav Robertson, the Chair of the South Carolina Democratic Party, agreed and said that the border crisis was not the point of the business trip and the governor was deflecting. "Gov. Henry McMaster was slow to act. He never took this virus and the stress it put on the Greenville Hospital system seriously. His inability to act quickly and decisively wasn't just flawed but it made people in the Upstate not take this virus seriously," he said. With cases and deaths declining, McMaster ended the state of emergency on June 7. Following this, Greenville County released its last COVID-19 situation report June 11 signaling that the county will no longer be releasing reports of infections and deaths. However, several state health department members have cautioned against complacency as pandemic infection numbers and deaths have continued to steadily decline. Dr. Linda Bell, the Department of Health and Environmental Control's epidemiologist, told reporters on June 9 that the state needed to be extremely vigilant, extremely careful about the possibility of resurgences. Bell feared that misinformation was exacerbating fears and increasing vaccine hesitancy. The conspiracy of infertility due to the vaccine was a common misconception the DHEC had heard, she said. "To those of you who have not yet received your vaccine, I hope you will consider that maybe now is the time," Bell said. "Because the consequences can be severe and the benefits are extraordinary." Greenville County has done well to vaccinate itself but the majority is centered in Greenville  Greenville County is sixth among 46 counties in the state when it comes to vaccination rates. Only behind Charleston, Georgetown, McCormick, Horry and Beaufort counties, Greenville County has managed to vaccinate 42% of its residents who are older than 12 years, as per DHEC data. However, data analysis by ZIP code shows that the majority of the vaccinations were centered in ZIP codes peppered across the city of Greenville. For the ZIP code 29661, which covers the towns of Marietta and Cleveland, only 1,238 people were vaccinatedmaking up only 0.69% of the total people vaccinated in the county. Though it is important to note that the city of Greenville is far more populous than the two towns situated on the northern edges of the county. Charles Allan, 64, stood at the side of Greer Highway in a conversation with two customers who were back from a flea market close by. Allan, who runs an auto shop, was the only one who was vaccinated among the three men. I wasnt going to get the vaccine, but my wife told me to. said Allan, who got his shot three months ago in Berea. Save for his wife and his father-in-law, no one in his family chose to get vaccinated. Shes just one of those people who gets everything done. Last year she actually got the flu, so when she went to get a flu shot and she just got that one [Moderna vaccine] too, he said. When asked if Harris visit could influence more people from the Upstate to book appointments into clinics, he said that it could work but he was reluctant to say more. More certainty in Harris' ability came down the highway, near Big Foot Drive. Nettie Centana, 46, was hauling logs of wood and building an enclosure for her chicken that had jumped out of their pen. Centana, who moved to Marietta from New York about 10 years ago, wasnt vaccinated. But her mother, cousin and daughter did get their vaccines two weeks ago. Her mother and daughter, she said, felt visible after-effects after their shots. "My daughter is getting better now," she said. When asked if she felt safe, she said, "I don't know. I'm not a conspiracy theorist. I'm just saying things based on what I see. I haven't caught it, my mom hasn't caught it, my brother hasn't caught it, so I don't feel at risk." Centana was certain. "I'm pretty sure. She's [Kamala Harris] a big influencer," she said. "When she talks, people listen."