Pop-up clinic provides doses of one-shot vaccine in People’s Park
Folks lined up to receive vaccinations in People’s Park last Thursday at a temporary clinic that was set up by Lifelong Medical. Only 20 doses of the one-shot Johnson and Johnson vaccine were available but the clinic staff said that they plan to return with more doses in the coming weeks.
“This is only a trial run that is why we only brought 20 doses, other groups have had trouble with extra doses remaining so we wanted to gauge the interest first.” said Holly McAdams a social worker with the Lifelong Medical Street Medicine team.
Because of the storage requirements the clinic staff need to administer all the vaccinations that they bring to insure that none of the doses are wasted, said Lifelong Medical Nurse Emmanuel Mejia. McAdams asked that only those who are unhoused wait in line to receive the limited number of vaccines that were available
Al, who is a Street Spirit newspaper vendor and a regular at the park was one of the first people in line to get the vaccine. “I was at Pete’s coffee selling Street Spirit newspapers and Michael Delacour told me that there are going to be vaccinations given in the park today. It sounded too good to be true. People who go to the coliseum have to wait for like five hours and then they need to get a second shot. The best thing about this one is that you do not need a second shot,” said Al.
The pop-up vaccination clinic was set up inside a small storage room with just enough space for a desk to process the documentation and issue vaccination cards, a chair for patients to sit while they receive the shot and a small cooler with a temperature gauge to store the doses. Outside the storage room a staff member offered bottled water and granola bars and asked the vaccine recipients to wait for fifteen minutes to assure that there are no signs of allergic reaction.
Among those standing in line to get the shot and there was some talk about the effectiveness of the vaccine as well as trust in the medical establishment. “They show you the small vile that it comes in and people can see that there is not likely to be a microchip in there, I mean, everybody is carrying around a phone anyway,” said Ryan, a regular at People’s Park who received the vaccination.
“I have heard that [the Johnson and Johnson vaccination] is not the best one but you might as well take it rather than not have one,” said Ben Zamora who also received the vaccine. He feels that because he is twenty-four years old he is not concerned so much about getting sick himself but he wants to help stop the disease from spreading.
Brenda who was waiting in line with her husband Daniel said that she was still deciding whether she actually wanted to get the vaccine. “The government has experimented on people in the past and the testing of the first two vaccines seemed awfully rushed.”
“I want to get the vaccination,’’ said Daniel, Brenda’s husband. “I drive the interstate with big rigs and when I go to other states people are not wearing masks or keeping their distance. They believe that the virus is a hoax, or that it will just disappear after the election. There is a lot of ignorance out there and not a lot of precaution,”
Brenda did decide to get the vaccination. “I was concerned but I feel good about getting it. The young man who gave me the shot said that it will help with the severity of the case if you do get it so you are much less likely to have to undergo serious procedures like intubation.”
UC Berkeley Homeless Outreach coordinator Ari Neulight helped the Lifelong Medical Staff set up the clinic. Once the clinic was up and rolling he spoke casually with park regulars and worked to deescalate an unrelated dispute between two people camping in the park. “UC Berkeley was not initially involved in the decision to vaccinate in the park, ‘’ said Neulight. “We do work closely with partner agencies in our community so when Lifelong contacted us we were like ‘Oh great!’ and we started talking about where we would set up the clinic and how it all would work and then I talked to people in the park to let them know that the vaccines are going to be available.”
“The reasoning behind this small outreach clinic is that we can serve the people who may not be comfortable with brick and mortar health care. We are so happy that it went so well. Everybody was really great,” said Lifelong Medical’s lead street nurse Emily Law who is known as Em.
It took Lifelong Medical staff about three hours to set up the clinic and vaccinate 20 people with the single-shot Johnson & Johnson vaccine.
As the last couple of vaccine recipients were completing the fifteen minute monitoring period I spoke with an older man who had just received the vaccine. Although I could not understand everything that he said I did gather that he was happy to have received the vaccination and was heading off to finish the tasks he had planned for the day.
