Most barriers to accessing COVID-19 vaccines in New York City have come down, even on Staten Island, where there’s no public hospital, and it took months of advocacy to open a city-run hub on the South Shore. But ongoing reluctance to get the shots has emerged as a key hurdle that New York, and the country as a whole, must overcome to control the pandemic.

Pockets of unvaccinated people can continue to serve as a haven for the coronavirus, as evidenced by ongoing surges upstate in Lewis County and Cortland County. What is broadly deemed vaccine “hesitancy” encompasses a range of attitudes among people with myriad backgrounds, varying comprehension of health information and different levels of resistance.

To explore the ways in which hesitancy can manifest, Health reporter Caroline Lewis headed to Staten Island, the borough that’s home to the most Republicans in the city as well as the solidly blue, ethnically diverse North Shore with its enclaves of Latino and African immigrants. 

She spoke with WNYC's Danny Lewis about what she encountered. Click "Listen" in the player, and for more on the story, head to Gothamist.