From subway station to soup room: the driving force for vaccinating American detention centers

Since last May, subway stations in New York City have been closed every night so that a large number of workers can disinfect the dirty platforms.

This may reassure the thousands of New Yorkers who received the vaccine at stations operated by the state’s Metropolitan Transportation Authority this week.

The pop-up poking site on the subway is a way for US health officials to try to reach about 50% of Americans who have not yet been vaccinated because the country’s once extremely rampant vaccination campaign is starting to lose momentum.

Butler Eddie said: “It’s very convenient, and it’s only one shot.” The butler was waiting in line for Johnson’s jab at Penn Station on Thursday. “My friends have been annoying me. They all register online, but I have no patience for this.”

On Wednesday, more than 1,100 New Yorkers were vaccinated at the MTA hub, and all of them received a free 7-day MetroCard in exchange.

Mass vaccinations are all about home runs, they are fancy and we did a good job.Now we must proceed

Giveaway There are also offers elsewhere in the United States: In Ohio, the governor said this week that residents who have been vaccinated will participate in a lottery and win $1 million.

The high-profile plan is part of a broader operation, which includes vaccine buses, churches and amusement park clinics, and door knocking campaigns, as the United States strives to improve immunity to the herd so that it can be completely reopened.

almost Half of the U.S. population At least one dose of vaccine has been received, but as the vaccination rate has slowed down, people’s attention has shifted from mass immunization efforts to specific vaccines. Hesitate Or hard-to-reach communities.

Health experts believe that people who want to get vaccinated are already eagerly looking for needles, and the second half of the vaccine work must focus on hesitation and “busy vaccinations”-those who want to get immunized but struggle to find time to go to a site. People who face language barriers and difficulties in getting to vaccination centers are also targeted.

Céline Gounder, an infectious disease expert and Joe Biden, a former Covid-19 transition advisory team member, said: “In the beginning, the focus was on how to quickly vaccinate a large number of vaccinations.” “Now, we are moving towards… Those are difficult. People who get along, [which] A more targeted, hyper-localized, and culturally appropriate response is needed. “

As the strategy shifts to targeted campaigns and brings jabs into people’s homes, some large-scale vaccination sites are gradually decreasing.

The CEO of Mascon Medical, John Chen, is launching the “Last Mile Vaccine Delivery” program in Massachusetts. The organization has helped organize clinics where people can walk and get vaccinated without pre-registration. They are located in churches, soup kitchens, shopping centers, and food processing plants all over the state.

He compared the strategies he used to canvass votes in elections: “Flyers, text messages, knock on the door… It is incredibly effective.

Chen said: “Some people can’t even write their names, some people can’t access the Internet, don’t even know how to register, and don’t even have time to go to one of the mass vaccination sites.”

To attract people from different backgrounds, health officials recruited people from the communities they were trying to reach. He said that translators in Creole, Portuguese and Spanish have helped Chen’s plan to vaccinate 20,000 people so far.

Baltimore’s health department also recruited people from target communities sought by cities such as Hispanics and African Americans. Letitia Dzirasa, the health commissioner of the Baltimore Department of Health, said that when communicating with people who are uncertain, it is easier for those who actually talk to them to understand their concerns.

Last week, her team began knocking on doors in vulnerable areas to increase vaccine absorption. Dzirasa said: “We are studying the areas with the lowest vaccination coverage and the highest medical record rates in the city, so that we really prioritize where we go.”

Wednesday, the Centers for Disease Control Respected The BioNTech/Pfizer vaccine for children aged 12 to 15 has created a new cohort of people who need to be immunized.

The Cove Island Marina and Lake Compounce theme parks in Connecticut have hosted a vaccine clinic set up by Community Health Center, a non-profit medical service provider in Connecticut, and the plan also plans to create temporary clinics in children’s summer camps.

CHC chief executive Mark Masselli (Mark Masselli) said that their goal is “the poor working people, who take some time to go to the beach on weekends, and people in the 25-45 age group, and in this group of people, Covid has no influence”.

In addition to the subway clinic, the vaccine bus also travels in New York to reach restaurant staff and delivery drivers. Both jobs provide a Johnson & Johnson vaccine, so people don’t have to take a second jab.

At the same time, grassroots organizations have sprung up to fill the void left by state health officials. Rida Hamida used crowdfunding donations to provide free tacos to encourage Muslims in Orange County, California to get vaccinated.

“Medical institutions… She didn’t know our community at the time,” she said, adding that because very few black Americans showed up at a temporary vaccination site in a church, they thought Muslims would be disengaged. “They brought us together.”

Hamida said that she had knocked on the door, went to the parking lot of the mosque, and the restaurant to speak to Muslims and resolved their concerns about vaccination. She said: “Many people think it’s not suitable for them.” “We talked with people in their living, eating and shopping places, and invited them to taste halal tacos and helped them understand how they are with other people. Happening.”

Encouraging ethnic minorities and rural communities to be immunized is critical for Joe Biden to achieve his goal of vaccinating at least 70% of American adults by July 4.

Masselli said: “A lot of vaccinations are about home runs, they are fancy and we did a good job.” “Now we have to move on.”