MACON, Ga. — The Bibb County Health Department welcomed someone back home last month.
Dr. Jimmie Smith is a Central Georgia native who returned to care for his community as the department's health administrator.
Smith says he knows public health is where he is meant to be.
"I look at a much broader picture than the folks I have just in the room," he says. "You also begin to notice trends across the community."
He says his role as the Macon-Bibb Health Department Administrator is to promote the services they offer, provide his team with the tools they need to do their job and to push their services forward.
"We need to be on the front end of that in leading those services or designing other service."
He says right now, the service that is needed the most is COVID-19 vaccines.
"As soon as we get them in, we're putting them in folks' arms," says Smith," But I think there are also some variables that are kind of holding us in place right now. The one that you hear about from a national perspective and then to the state and certainly it comes down to local is just the availability of the vaccine."
He says they could place an order for 1,000 doses, but they may only get 200.
As for mistrust in the vaccine, especially in the Black and Hispanic communities, he says that is something they're working to tackle.
According to the CDC, Black and Hispanic people are nearly 3 times as likely to die of COVID-19 than white people and are about 4 times more likely to be hospitalized with the deadly virus.
"I kind of follow, you know, what we all learned in kindergarten, our ABCs," says Smith. "One, be accessible. Two, be believable, and three, we have to be competent. I'm not worried about that with the team we have here providing those vaccines."
Smith says he has been working with local faith leaders to get the word out and he thinks that message will get through.
"I think as we do that, the evidence-based science, which I will say has taken a beating over the last couple of months, will prevail."
Smith says they are still trying to find a balance between handling the huge demand for vaccines and the other services they offer.
"No, we're not balanced just yet. No. That's one of the jobs I have to work on."
They're still urging people to come in for things like cancer screenings and clinical services for diabetes and hypertension.
"In the midst of COVID, we know that nationwide 35 to 40 percent of routine care visits have decreased. That number goes up dramatically when you start looking at the local level."
He says right now, their operation is an all hands on deck situation with their staff of 55 people.
"If you were to see our operation, you'll see folks directing traffic, you will see folks registering folks as they're coming through the line, you will see our nurses, or full time staff as well as our temporary staff that's been sent in to assist us providing those vaccines."
He says thankfully, very few people have missed their appointment.
Looking to the future when we do get COVID-19 under control, he says they'll be there.
"We'll certainly have a role in the evaluation and monitoring of our community," he says. "I think we also need to stick to what public health has traditionally done and that is to certainly promote primary and secondary prevention."