PSP continues vaccine campaign

At the end of February or early March, Permian Strategic Partnership will begin the second phase of its COVID-19 vaccine education campaign.

Launched in November 2021, PSP is using digital and social medial, TV, video and print outlets to encourage people to get COVID shots.

Tracee Bentley, president and CEO of PSP, said right after Christmas they had billboards go up and the week before last its Instagram, Facebook and some digital media have gone live.

PSP is a coalition of 16 leading Permian Basin energy companies who joined together to work in partnership with leaders across the region’s communities to address current and future challenges to the responsible development of the oil and natural gas resources of the Permian Basin in the states of New Mexico and Texas, its website said.

“Next week, you’ll see our radio and television ads,” Bentley said.

She expects to get more feedback once they are up on TV and radio. Bentley added that most of the comments they have received are positive and that people have thanked the organization for taking a leadership role.

If they need to adjust along the way, they will, according to the feedback they’re getting, she said.

The second phase is called Take Back the Basin and will feature a different message of attack the virus not the vaccinated.

“Take back the Basin is really reminding folks how personal this disease has been for our communities and that every person who’s died as a result of COVID in the Permian has been one of our neighbors, one of our friends, a member of our family, and a member of our workforce, and our community …,” Bentley said.

By putting names to those who have died, they can be remembered and honored. It also is aimed at getting people to understand how personal this is for the community and “that the numbers don’t have to be that tragic.”

“With the Omicron virus, of course, we know that people who have been vaccinated and boosted can still get the Omicron but we also know that a vaccination and a boost can certainly prevent it from being a hospital visit and even worse — possibly on a ventilator and possibly even death, so we know that the vaccine can certainly prevent some extremes,” Bentley said.

Reading the local newspapers, she said you can tell that the obituary sections are “abnormally large and they have been since this thing started,” she said.

“And I think it’s just people read them and then they move on and we forget that those were really important members of our community that probably did not have to die and so just kind of remembering that and re-instituting in people it doesn’t have to be this way. We need to take care of ourselves and take care of each other,” Bentley added.

Asked if the recent COVID surge has slowed the oil business down, Bentley said not that she was aware of. But that could change.

“… I haven’t seen production slowdown,” but her office is in downtown Midland and there are lots of closed locations because people are working from home due to the surge, Bentley said.

Hospitals also are being slammed with patients not only in Odessa and Midland, but everywhere.

PSP is still in the first phase of the campaign.

The ads in PSP’s campaign give a website where you can look up the nearest testing site. It’s at attackcovid.org

There is also a link for people who want to get vaccinated at home and that is for Texas and New Mexico.