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WASHINGTON — Vaccine holdouts could end up being the last obstacle to defeating the pandemic, and a growing effort is aimed at convincing one substantial group of skeptics: Republicans.

While efforts to combat vaccine hesitancy and access have so far been mostly focused on African Americans and Latinos, recent polls suggest the largest group of Americans either hesitant about the Covid-19 vaccine or outright opposed to it are Republicans, and efforts to reach them are only in their infancy.

Iowa’s congressional delegation is urging the Biden Administration to restructure the state’s weekly allocation of Covid vaccine. The group says putting more doses of Johnson and Johnson’s vaccine in the mix make sense. Representative Ashley Hinson of Marion says pharmacies in rural parts of the state cannot afford the freezers required to store the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines.

 “Rural and low income Iowans face unique barriers to receiving the Covid vaccine,” Hinson says. “One of the challenges, of course, is storing the vaccine in cool enough temperatures.”

Vaccination, particularly for the most vulnerable Americans, is the surest way for us to overcome the Covid-19 crisis. As physicians, we celebrate the light at the end of the tunnel, in large part due to Operation Warp Speed. But as members of Congress, we are becoming increasingly concerned that federal bureaucracy continues to stand in the way of rapid, widespread administration of Covid-19 vaccines.