LAKELAND - Sometimes he starts with it, other times it just come up in the conversation — but whenever he is speaking in public, area MLA David Hanson pokes in a needle reference.
"I am double-vaxxed, by the way," Hanson said last week during an interview about his assistance in the Lac La Biche region since the area has no official MLA.
He works in a push to get vaccinated into every public speaking event, interview and conversation. He sees it as a public service, like his role as a politician.
"I think that people either have to be double vaccinated or they are going to get COVID or pass it onto someone else," he said, acknowledging the very low percentage of people in his constituency who have had two vaccine doses.
"Whenever I'm talking to folks, I'm telling them to get vaccinated," he said, explaining that he believes the science behind the vaccines. He also believes the math.
"Billions of people have had access to the vaccines ... and more need to," he said.
Across his own riding, barely more than 50 per cent of eligible residents have received at least one COVID-19 vaccine. Hanson said he got his first shot in April of this year. In the St. Paul region — his home community — less than 40 per cent of eligible residents have had one shot. The St. Paul area has one of the province's lowest percentages of vaccine recipients.
Hanson says he's not sure why so many people in rural settings aren't getting vaccinated — but he tries to use his local notoriety to persuade as many as he can.
"When I go to events all over, all I can do is encourage folks to get it," he said.
Latest numbers
Starting off the week, provincial COVID statistics were showing that 6.085 million vaccinations have been given out in Alberta, with 63 percent of the province's population now having two doses and 71.3 percent having one dose.
Worldwide, the World Health Organization is reporting that approximately 3.6 billion people around the world — 47 per cent of the population — have received a COVID-19 vaccine.
