How New Mexico became the country's unlikely vaccination star
Politico
Shortly after the first Covid-19 vaccine was cleared for emergency use in December, leaders of New Mexicos largest health care system suggested they should shut down the slick coronavirus vaccine appointment website they had opened weeks earlier.
That way, they explained, they could avoid conflict with the statewide registry that New Mexicos health department had already set up.
That decision proved to be crucial, helping New Mexico streamline its vaccination campaign and become the unlikely U.S. leader, local and national experts say. That success came despite the sprawling states longstanding public health challenges, including a high poverty rate and routinely poor health care outcomes, and caught the attention of other states interested in replicating its model.
New Mexico in recent days became the state first to provide at least one dose to half of its adult population, and a nation-leading 38 percent of adults are fully vaccinated. Its also among the top-performing states on equity: Over 26 percent of Blacks, 32 percent of Hispanics and 41 percent of Asians received at least one shot, according to a Kaiser Family Foundation review of the 41 states publicly reporting ethnic and racial data.