Turkish teams on mission to persuade the vaccine-reluctant

In Turkey, “vaccination persuasion” teams are in the streets

MARDIN, Turkey -- In the medieval Turkish city of Mardin, Medine Ereli calls out to a team of medical workers walking along the town’s cobblestoned main street. Her 59-year old husband refuses to get vaccinated, she tells the doctor and nurse, before leading them to Enver Ereli, who’s on the job as a municipal sanitation worker. The masked health care duo is part of Turkey’s “vaccination persuasion” teams, a recent initiative that aims to promote inoculation against the coronavirus among the country’s most vulnerable population. Their job is to persuade people who fall in the age groups eligible for the vaccine, but who have so far been reluctant to get their shots. At the start of the inoculation program, some elderly people mistrusted the vaccine amid rumors that it was part of a plot to kill off the older population, said Dr. Aysegul Duyan, who is out on the road with nurse Meltem Gulcan.