{"id":827,"date":"2021-02-11T21:20:17","date_gmt":"2021-02-11T21:20:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.arcseniors.org\/?p=827"},"modified":"2021-09-21T13:26:26","modified_gmt":"2021-09-21T13:26:26","slug":"vaccine-drive-at-the-armory","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.arcseniors.org\/es\/vaccine-drive-at-the-armory\/","title":{"rendered":"Vaccine Drive at the Armory"},"content":{"rendered":"

Originally published on Our Town NY<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Andres Nieto has a rallying cry for these hard times.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe want to achieve heard immunity in Northern Manhattan,\u201d he explained, \u201cto be the first community in the city to do it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nieto has worked for NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital for forty years and is the hospital\u2019s director of Community Health & Outreach.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But his rallying cry is as much about civic equity as epidemiology, although they do intersect.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In fact, he adopted this goal of first-to-herd-immunity from the leader of one of the 40 senior centers, churches, health programs and other community organizations who are working with the hospital to arrange vaccinations for every eligible resident in the predominately black and Latino neighborhoods of Harlem, Washington Heights and Inwood.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Public health experts say the whole city \u2013 indeed, the entire country \u2013 will need aggressive community outreach efforts like this to overcome the distrust and lack of access that is causing vaccination efforts to lag in communities of color.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The northern half of Manhattan has suffered far more in the pandemic than the lower part of the borough.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The death rate in East Harlem, for example, is 417 per 100,000, more than 5 times the rate of 82 per 100,000 a half hour walk away in Yorkville and the upper east side. The average death rate for all of Manhattan is 182 per 100,000, according to city figures. It is 270 per 100,000 citywide.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Similarly, infections rates are higher uptown. In the 10032 ZIP code in Washington Heights, where NewYork-Presbyterian is located, 13 percent of COVID-19 tests have come back positive, compared to, say, the 5% who tested positive in 10023, the West Side from Columbus Circle up to the Museum of Natural History.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cNorthern Manhattan is a vibrant, amazing community,\u201d said Nieto, who came with his family from Uruguay when he was six. \u201cWe\u2019ve been hit very hard.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Data Disparity<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The disparity was magnified by data just released by the city and the state showing that while the virus is hitting Northern Manhattan and other communities of color hardest, the vaccines are going disproportionately to white New Yorkers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A Tribeca Soul Cycle instructor became the poster child for this inequity when she revealed on Instagram (of course) that she had gone to a largely Latino neighborhood of Staten Island and secured vaccination by describing herself as \u201can educator.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But if Stacey Griffith is the privileged face of what\u2019s gone wrong with the vaccine rollout, then Andres Nieto should become the inclusive face of putting it right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

His dad, a mortician at Presbyterian, scored his son a job as an overnight security guard forty years ago. Andres, known to everyone as Andy, thought he would stay a year. But the hospital helped him through college and he moved up through the ranks, eventually to his present role, where he manages community health programs funded by New York-Presbyterian, government grants and philanthropic organizations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So when NewYork-Presbyterian got the job of running a mass vaccination site across the street at the Fort Washington Armory, Nieto was the natural guy to make sure the community not only had access but used it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cPulse of the Community\u201d <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

His first call, Nieto recalled, was with Fern Hertzberg, the Executive Director at ARC Fort Washington Senior Center, which runs two senior centers in Harlem and one in Washington Heights.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cShe really has the pulse of the community,\u201d Nieto said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The hospital had already vaccinated about 500 seniors in the neighborhood who were patients. But that was just practice compared to the scale of what was needed now as vaccination moved to the Armory, managed by NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital affiliated with Weill Cornell Medicine and Columbia University Medical Center.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe can\u2019t do it alone,\u201d Nieto said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hertzberg and the leaders of eight other senior programs met with Nieto to set up an appointment system that recognized that seniors couldn\u2019t navigate the city\u2019s online system. Many of the appointments were being snagged by residents from downtown or even Westchester.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The hospital set aside 60 percent of its appointments for northern Manhattan and a part of the Bronx (which is right across the Harlem River) and created an exclusive site where community groups could directly book appointments for local residents.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt was a great experience,\u201d reported James O\u2019Neal, 73, a retired health executive who lives in West Harlem and got his appointment through Hertzberg. \u201cFirst of all, I was glad to get it. It was painless. It was extremely well organized. I got there 15 minutes before, walked right in. The best thing about it was I saw people from the neighborhood and we were able to sit and talk awhile. These were people I hadn\u2019t seen in almost a year.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hertzberg explains that the shared experience may well be the most important element in breaking down hesitancy: \u201cAs we roll this out and as each person gets the shot and says how fantastic their experience was at the Armory, people are now saying, \u2018my friend so-and-so got the shot, I\u2019ll go.\u2019 People who originally said, \u2018no\u2019 or \u2018I don\u2019t know\u2019 or \u2018I\u2019m waiting\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nieto knows he and his partners will need to overcome this hesitancy to be first-to-herd-immunity. But Nieto is working without a crucial piece of information, one of his neighborhood\u2019s City Council members, Mark Levine, points out. \u201cNYC is still withholding ZIP code data on vaccination rates, which is key to identifying inequality,\u201d said Levine, who chairs the council health committee.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So for now the goal is simply to reach as many residents as possible – through faith leaders, senior centers, health workers or a trusted friend.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSince I got my shot I\u2019ve referred maybe a dozen people to Fern,\u201d said O\u2019Neal, who knows Hertzberg from their shared work advocating for seniors. \u201cSo more and more people are starting to feel \u2018ok, i can take the vaccine.\u2019 There\u2019s a great hesitancy. I think there are a lot of people out there waiting.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt was painless. It was extremely well organized … The best thing about it was I saw people from the neighborhood and we were able to sit and talk awhile. These were people I hadn\u2019t seen in almost a year.\u201d West Harlem resident James O\u2019Neal<\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Please consider donating to help us continue to fill this need. You can donate to ARC XVII aqu\u00ed<\/a>. <\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Originally published on Our Town NY Andres Nieto has a rallying cry for these hard times. \u201cWe want to achieve heard immunity in Northern Manhattan,\u201d he explained, \u201cto be the first community in the city to do it.\u201d Nieto has worked for NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital for forty years and is the hospital\u2019s director of Community Health …<\/p>\n

Vaccine Drive at the Armory<\/span> Leer m\u00e1s »<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"default","ast-site-content-layout":"","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"default","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\nVaccine Drive at the Armory - 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