Health officials in Palm Beach County have a lot more COVID vaccine than they do takers for the shots.
Health Director Dr. Alina Alonso with the Florida Dept. of Health says part of the reason is vaccine hesitancy, and she cites falsehoods about the vaccine for some of that, including a belief by some women that it could make them infertile.
"That is one of those myths that has occurred on the Internet. There is absolutely no evidence of any infertility due to the vaccine."
Alonso says education is needed to get people to understand that the vaccine is safe.
"It's really hard to get rid of those things, those urban legends that occur. There's still people that think that there's chips in the vaccine also."
She says the Health Department plans to hold some Zoom meetings with residents of minority communities and plans to address vaccine myths.
The doctor also advises against mandating the COVID-19 vaccine in schools.
"As we see, things that are mandatory have a certain rebellious nature in us that automatically wants to reject it."
During Tuesday's County Commission meeting, Dr. Alonso was asked by Commissioner Maria Sachs whether the Palm Beach County School District is expected to mandate that students have the vaccine before enrolling next school year.
"Even though I'm (a) very strong public health advocate and I see how well countries do that mandate people to get vaccinated, that doesn't go well in the United States."
She again pointed to education as the best way to get people to accept the vaccine.
While no public school districts in Florida have announced mandated vaccines for students, Nova Southeastern University has announced that students who show up on campus in the fall must show proof of vaccinations.
However, the private college faces likely court action because that goes against an executive order from the governor, which bans governments and businesses from doing that.
Before Dr. Alonso gave her update on the county's COVID-19 mitigation efforts, County Commissioner Mack Bernard made a proclamation to honor late U.S. Congressman Alcee Hastings, who died after a battle with cancer earlier this month.
Photo: CBS 12