Tribal Nations’ Success with Vaccination Drives Gets National Attention

The Washington Post reported “Native American tribes, among the hardest-hit by covid-19, are celebrating a pandemic success story. Navajo Nation, the largest of the 574 Indian tribes in the United States, is now about 70 percent fully vaccinated, according to Navajo Nation President Jonathan Nez. Other tribes are reporting similar numbers. By late March, Blackfeet Nation in Montana reported that 95 percent of its population had received its first vaccine dose. The Confederated Tribes of the Chehalis Reservation’s vaccine drive went so well that leaders offered surplus doses to a neighboring school district. The Sac and Fox Tribe of the Mississippi, with 70 percent of its eligible population fully vaccinated, is nearing herd immunity.”

Click here for the full article: The Washington Post

NBC News reported “The darkest days of the pandemic stretched through the fall, when ambulances were frequently called to transport tribal members of the Blackfeet Nation, whose lands border the snow-capped mountains of Glacier National Park in northern Montana, to hospitals two hours away. While about 10,000 people live on the tribe’s sprawling reservation, which is larger than the state of Delaware, the effects of the coronavirus were acute: Tribal health officials recorded more than 1,390 cases of Covid-19, including nearly 50 deaths. But now, the tribe is boasting a remarkable feat in its fight against the virus: Roughly 98 percent of the reservation’s eligible population has been fully vaccinated against the disease, compared to about 40 percent of Montana’s total population and 41 percent of the U.S. population, according to the latest federal health data.”

Click here for the full article: NBCNews