Smaller, More Local Vaccination Sites to be Created in NYC, as Soon as Increased Vaccine Supply Arrives

By Yehudit Garmaise

   While many of the 2,574,864 New York City residents who have been vaccinated don’t mind trudging to mass vaccination centers in sports stadiums and medium-sized sites in hospitals to get inoculated, the elderly and members of some communities, like ours, would feel more comfortable getting vaccinated right in their own neighborhoods.

     Two weeks ago, in a conference call with Jewish reporters, Dave. A. Chokshi, MD, the city’s health commissioner, and Mitch Katz, MD, the CEO of Health + Hospitals, mentioned that “vaccination pods” or smaller sites in local settings would be soon on the horizon.

     Mayor de Blasio said this morning that he believed "100%" in a grassroots effort to get everyone vaccinated, however, before the city can create smaller, more local vaccination sites, a greater supply of the vaccine is necessary.

     “A lot of people will come forward [to get vaccinated] if [the access] gets more local and is provided by trust local providers,” the mayor told BoroPark24. “In a typical week, however, we are 150,000 to 200,000 doses short of where we should be, if we were really given our fair share.

    “As we get more, you are going to see more and more localized sites. I think that is going to give people comfort and get more and more people to come out.”

    Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D), who was also present at the at the mayor’s press conference this morning, responded in kind, by announcing a “brand-new vaccine supercharge for New York that is coming from the federal government.”

    Although Sen. Schumer did not say when New Yorkers could expect an impending large delivery of vaccines, once that “supercharge of vaccines,” as he called it, arrives, the state hopes to better reach its residents by creating, along with the Department of Health and Human Services, 100 community health centers as smaller, federally-funded vaccine sites.

     In addition, yesterday, Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced that in anticipation of a large shipment of the one-shot Johnson & Johnson vaccine, the state is not only creating 10 new mass vaccination sites, but he is encouraging houses of worship to volunteer to serve as pop-up vaccination sites as another way that New Yorkers can get vaccinated in familiar, local settings. 

    The mayor explained that to get as many people vaccinated as quickly as possible, the megasites, and “the typical Department of Health sites or Health + Hospital sites, are very efficient; They can reach a lot of people quickly.” 

   But the mayor agreed with BoroPark24 that small vaccination sites were necessary as well.

  “More and more, we are making the vaccination process more local, and that works,” the mayor said.

 (Darren McGee- Office of Governor Andrew M. Cuomo)