Mobile bus clinics are being used to provide vaccines to those who cannot easily travel

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Thu, 2021-05-20 17:32 — mike kraft

From the East Coast to the West, health officials are taking the Covid-19 vaccines on the road.

Across the country, nurses, technicians, emergency medical workers and community partners are rolling up to the doorsteps, streets and churches of people who are homeless, who live in areas without reliable transportation or who have no internet access.

Their goal: to reach the unvaccinated stragglers in overlooked neighborhoods, plugging a vulnerable gap in the nationwide effort to outmaneuver death. Some people are encumbered by jobs or the responsibility of child care. Others struggle with dire poverty. Many are adrift, out of reach or uninformed.

The mobile units are far from the privileged and fanciful scenes taking place in other parts of the United States and around the world. In Israel, a bar offered patrons “shots for shots.” People in Ohio who have received at least one dose of a Covid vaccine can enter a $1 million lottery. There is the novelty of getting vaccinated in a world-famous museum, on a beach or at a ski resort.

Then there are the people of Sussex County, Del. Many live in poverty, more vulnerable to the deadly path of the coronavirus. A trip to the doctor or a vaccination appointment can mean enduring the time-gobbling navigation of irregular bus routes, or losing a day’s wages.

The Rev. Sonja Ayers of Mount Zion A.M.E. Church in Ellendale is among the community leaders who have joined the campaign to turn obstacles into opportunities. She said organizers had posted fliers, published bulletins and relied on word-of-mouth to reach people who have little access to computers or cellphones in an area struggling with a high infection rate.

“We are trying to make it convenient for them so that they can get vaccinated,” she said. “The most important thing is that we save ourselves and others.”

In a pandemic, inconvenience can dictate the difference between life and death.

So in April, teams from Beebe Healthcare and local partners wrangled a bus that had been used as a mobile library and repurposed it with workstations. ...

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