Peach Tree Times

As anti-vaxxers reportedly used harassment to stop people from being vaccinated against COVID, Gov. Brian Kemp earlier this week pushed incentives and other assistance rather than mandates.

At a press conference on Monday, Kemp announced that the approximately 325,000 teachers who make up the State Health Benefit Plan (SHBP) membership now are eligible for an incentive to get vaccinated against COVID. The incentive is a $150 Visa gift card or $480 in credits to pay down health care expenses such as co-insurance or co-pays.

"Vaccination remains our most effective tool against COVID-19," Gov. Kemp said during the press conference.

Dr. Kathleen Toomey | gema.georgia.gov

Unlike many other COVID vaccine incentives announced around the nation, Kemp said the incentive he announced will be retroactive to those SHBP members who already have been vaccinated. The eligibility deadline is Nov. 30.

Kemp also announced an executive order that waives the weight and hour limits for trucks delivering oxygen. 

Georgians trying to be vaccinated are being stymied by anti-vaxxers harassing the healthcare vaccination workers, The Atlanta Journal Constitution reported the day after the press conference.  The Journal Constitution cited aides to Dr. Kathleen Toomey, Georgia Department of Health commissioner, saying that public health staff "have been harassed, yelled at, threatened and demeaned by some of the very members of the public they were trying to help."

"In one south Georgia county, the anti-vaxxers tracked down public health employees through social media and harangued them with messages of hostility and misinformation about vaccines," the newspaper reported.

The newspaper also reported that Toomey "stopped us in our tracks when she revealed that anti-vaxxer protesters had disrupted several vaccination drives – and forced one to shut down."

On Aug. 24, Gov. Brian Kemp announced deployment of more than 105 National Guard personnel to hospitals throughout the state.

Kemp spoke with 98.7 WGAU's Tim Bryant about encouraging Georgians to speak with their healthcare provider and the vaccination and took to Twitter on Tuesday to push the benefits of vaccination.

In his tweet, Kemp said he'd joined with state health officials "to discuss our continued efforts to highlight the benefits of vaccination – including additional incentives for state employees – and assist hospital systems in their fight against COVID."

Toomey joined Kemp at Monday's press conference, and cited the state's dismal COVID numbers. Those numbers have surpassed the previous highest point in January, Toomey said, adding that much of the increase comes from a surge in the Delta variant. Toomey referred to the prior weekend's report of 23,753 new COVID-19 cases and 85 additional deaths.

Nearly all of the most recently reported deaths and hospitalizations were unvaccinated people, Toomey said.

"We have the capacity to vaccinate more and more people, we just aren't having the people to come and be vaccinated," Toomey said.