Chania Batten has the same reason to feel pandemic fatigue like anyone.

As a nurse in the drive-through clinic of the only hospital in rural Rowan County, West Virginia, she spent months patiently answering questions, eliminating misinformation, and making it suspect that the COVID-19 vaccine is the key to fighting off the coronavirus The doubters rest assured.

At the thought of the pandemic entering another calendar year, Button shuddered.

“It’s frustrating,” said the mother of two young children. “We all want to return to our lives.”

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, shortly after the first vaccines were approved a year ago, West Virginia once led the nation in getting people vaccinated. But the state soon encountered resistance and its ranking began to decline. Due to the discrepancy between the state and federal numbers, it is not clear how much it has fallen, but the fight in Ron County shows that there is a lot of room for improvement.

Only about 45% of the county’s population has been vaccinated against the coronavirus. According to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, nearly one-third of the 55 counties in the state have less than 50%.

Residents are struggling to receive vaccines for different reasons. But Patton, one of the people who fought on the front line in a long and hard battle, persuaded the people who were often unable to persuade, may have heard most of the people’s voices.

“To be honest, there are still many questions about vaccines and their ingredients,” she said. “A lot of people are still scared because there is not enough information for them to use. You have that kind of paranoia.”

But now, as the omicron virus strain suddenly rages in the American population, the urgency for people to accept the only known effective way to alleviate the virus has increased.

State hospitals continue to be under pressure, warning that the number of patients is increasing and the level of staffing is declining. Forecasts show that the number of people hospitalized due to the virus during the holidays will be close to the record of more than 1,000 people set in September.

Ron General Hospital operates the main COVID-19 vaccination clinic for Ron County, which is an hour’s drive north of the state capital, Charleston. It sits on the hillside of Spencer with a population of 2,000, and Bing Crosby’s “White Christmas” and other holiday songs blasted from speakers throughout the town square. This 484 square mile county has 14,000 residents.

Except for her regular shifts in the hospital, sometimes Batten is the only nurse equipped with drive-thru lanes, and sometimes there are as many as a dozen cars in line.

“It can be overwhelming,” Barton said, holding a clipboard in the cold December air. “But this is my job.”

Barton said she still likes the job, and if she has to, she will go door-to-door to persuade people to shoot. But in this part of West Virginia, not much seems to have passed.

Republican Governor Jim Justice tried to give away gifts and showed up with an expressionless bulldog named Babydog to try to persuade people to accept the shooting. He donated hundreds of thousands of state dollars to vaccinated residents through drawings. Last month, he presented a check for $50,000 to a middle school in Ron County to encourage students, faculty and staff to be vaccinated.

The hospital’s marketing campaign on the importance of COVID-19 injections includes daily information on social media, radio advertisements, and doctor recommendations. But Doug Bentz, the hospital’s chief executive, said he was not sure how to interpret the information.

“In fact, I think sometimes the media hurts things because people dig so deeply politically,” Bentz said in his office recently. “Instead of making rational decisions, they feel they must adhere to some principles. There is a lot of misinformation there. Unfortunately, I think we lack trust in the government and the media because people believe it.”

The wear and tear in the nursing industry is obvious. In 2020 alone, 1,700 nurses have chosen not to renew their licenses in West Virginia.

Batten herself has just recovered from a virus infection recently, and she does not want to join the ranks of those who have stopped trying.

“You still come here to work and do your job, but there are still people who don’t want to come for vaccinations,” Barton said. “Or they can’t see what other people are going through, especially those who lost their loved ones in the hospital.”

Despite efforts to promote, many people don’t even know that outdoor clinics are available. Barton said that when she was working in the hospital, people would ask her questions about vaccines. Other people face different obstacles, either because of their age or because of traffic challenges.

But there are also voices of opposition. Whether it is for ethical, personal or political reasons, some people say they have no intention of being vaccinated.

Roane General is a non-profit hospital with only 25 acute care beds that can serve the entire county. In November, the hospital specifically expanded a facility costing more than 28 million U.S. dollars.

Nevertheless, the new virus strain may still overwhelm them.

Bentz said: “I don’t think the public understands what’s happening on the walls of hospitals, emergency rooms, and inpatient floors.” “This is a different world. At Roane, we have limited resources. Our experts are limited. However, we are forced to Provide ICU-level care with the resources we have, high acuity. This is not always ideal. But do we have a choice.”