No Guests At AMA-CON Point To A Bigger Problem for Amarillo

AMA-CON is right around the corner and from the looks of it, a pretty good convention is in store for folks going this year. One thing that is noticeable this year is the lack of a major celebrity guest or even minor guests. While it's not nessicarily going to ruin the event for me it does point to a problem here in the bomb city. Our lack of Vaccine compliance is starting to cause folks to second guess a visit to Amarillo and the Panhandle region

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It's already hard enough to get big acts and concerts in to the area as is because of routing or whatever excuse they want to come up with. But the idea that getting celebrities or guests turning down because of immunization is just frustrating. It seems that ever since Governor Greg Abbott dropped all mandates and restrictions, Vaccine rates in Amarillo took a serious nose dive. The numbers even back it up. Among Texas Metros we aren't looking so hot.

Fully vaccinated among those 12 and up but not yet 65:

• Potter County 36.14%
• Randall County 38.08%
• Dallas County 50.44%
• Bexar County (San Antonio) 54.72%
• El Paso County 67.01%
• Harris County (Houston) 52.41 %
• Travis (Austin) 61.31

This data also takes into consideration single shot vaccines for those who took the Johnson and Johnson vaccine. and while the single shot numbers are generally in the 70% range across the board, one shot doesn't nail it. It's more frustrating for Amarillo as for a moment we were leading the pack in the state with immunizations. Basically:

Tell someone they don't need to do something and they completely blow it off...

The problem is 1 out 5 here in Amarillo is fully protected. that's not comforting... and if you're an event planner that's a problem. We're not out of the woods yet. Yes I may sound alarmist and even with our low caseloads we still have a ways to go.

Maybe I'm wrong, Maybe my stats are off... All I want is what many of you want. Events that are worth going to, not watered down because we can't get our uh... stuff together.