Vaccine Volunteers Band Together

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Brian Lehrer: Brian Lehrer on WNYC. Each week during the vaccination era, S. Mitra Kalita, founder of URL Media and publisher of the news organization Epicenter-NYC has been joining us, as she helps connect harder to reach or harder to convince New Yorkers with vaccines. Well, unlike so many other moments during the pandemic, we'll be discussing good news on this Friday, before the long weekend.

As we've talked about earlier this week, the United States has now passed the 50% mark of US vaccinated adults, according to the CDC, but so often left out of the conversation are the community organizers nationwide who have worked so hard to help those who may need a little extra assistance. For this segment, we're going to feature a special initiative called VaxFest2021 that our local outreach leader extraordinaire S. Mitra Kalita has helped coordinate. Her organization Epicenter-NYC teamed up with vaccine volunteers around the country who have helped their community similar to how Epicenter helps in New York.

Joining Mitra to tell us more about it is Maria Peterson, a Montgomery County, Maryland high school teacher and member of the group, the Vaccine Hunters, who have helped secure over 15,000 vaccine appointments and helped host the VaxFest2021 event. We'll see what's working, and what still needs to be done to reach 70% or 80% vaccination, the commonly cited herd immunity thresholds. Thanks for joining us again, Mitra and Maria, welcome to WNYC.

S. Mitra Kalita: Thanks, Brian.

Maria Peterson: Thank you for having us.

Brian Lehrer: Mitra, tell us about VaxFest2021.

1. Mitra Kalita: Sure. This actually came out of an organic meeting of folks like myself and Maria, who's joining us today. I'm so honored to be in her presence, that 15,000 numbers, three times what Epicenter has done. I would love for her to talk about what is working. We all joined a Zoom call. It was folks in Chicago, in Washington, DC, I set up a center, Westchester, and so forth. We were just comparing notes as volunteers. We said, what do we want the Surgeon General to know? What do we want the head of the COVID Task Force, Andy Slavitt to know. What do we want President Biden to know?

It was really Maria and her teacher group's idea that, is there a way to make the process of giving vaccines more fun? Should there be balloons? Should there be freebies? Should there be pupusas? Brian, as you and I have talked every week, I do think these freebies are working and any positive connotation we can get with the vaccines is also working.

Our best ambassadors are not famous people. Our best ambassadors for the vaccine are friends and family who've gotten it, lived to tell us it was not that bad, and encourage others to get it. This felt like a decentralized way to continue our volunteer efforts, but also get some fun going in either vaccine sites or in the community mobile units, and really getting shots in arms in a much more decentralized way than we've been seeing.

Brian Lehrer: Yes, all these giveaways and contests I saw on TV last night. They were featuring the first Ohio $1 million vaccine lottery winner, which they had open to people who went and got their vaccines and entered the lottery for $1 million prize. The first recently vaccinated $1 million winner in Ohio was announced yesterday. That seems to have had an effect on the numbers in that state. There's now something like that here and in Colorado and some other states that are doing lotteries, and lots of other kinds of giveaways too.

Before we hear about how The Vaccine Hunters group got involved, I do want to open up the phones to listeners on this. Has anybody listening right now, either been drawn to a vaccine by a giveaway or a contest? Has anyone been working to connect people with vaccines on your own or with your own local group? Do you have a story or want to highlight someone, who maybe needed access?

We say hesitancy, but Mitra and I say it together every week, hesitancy is one thing, access is still a problem, even though there are enough vaccines to go around, matching vaccines and the people who would take them is an absolutely incomplete process. Tell us your story about yourself or somebody you know, 646-435-7280, or ask a question, 646-435- 7280.

Maria, as calls are coming in, as I said in the opening, your group, The Vaccine Hunters has had tremendous reach in connecting your community in Maryland with vaccine appointments. The story of how it started looks really interesting. Tell us a little bit about it.

Maria Peterson: Little bit about our group. We are a group of eight teachers in Montgomery County, Maryland, all teach high school [unintelligible 00:05:26] girls. We all have like a common friend, a friend in common, and we all started as a need when we saw teachers were getting appointments, not as easily. Even though we've been teaching virtually, we're very tech-savvy, we were struggling. We were like, hold on, there's no way seniors are going to be able to do this, 75 and up, which is at that same time that their time came. That's how our group, our grassroot effort began, helping those seniors. Many of them don't have computer, don't have the technology, because of their arthritis, they can't manage a keyboard.

At that point, in Maryland, the only way to secure appointments was online, there was no phone number to call or anything. From there, we transitioned to grassroots because we realized a lot of the people in the Black and brown communities at those clinics that were very heavy Hispanic were not making it to those appointments. From there, we evolved to helping in terms of people going to appointments and being profiled, turned away. It has evolved at this point where we have helped, like you said, over 15,000 people, mainly in the Black and brown community to secure appointments. The reasons that they've been struggling or trying to get appointments, it's huge.

Brian Lehrer: You ended up teaming up with a colleague of yours, named Maisie Lynch, I see, and started with a spreadsheet with resources.

Maria Peterson: Yes.

Brian Lehrer: Can you tell us a little bit about that?

Maria Peterson: Yes, so we started with a spreadsheet. We created a Google form with all the different hospitals, clinics in the county, because at the beginning of the pandemic, people were not sure where to go to secure appointments, I didn't know who was offering appointments. That spreadsheet had all the different hospitals and clinics in the area with hyperlinks, then we were charting what day does this place release appointments. For example, Holy Cross was really good hospital, it was really good about Thursdays at four o'clock, or Tuesdays and Thursdays at four o'clock, that's when they release appointments.

People were able to go to that form, and know exactly, "Okay, tomorrow, I could see Adventist Hospital is releasing at noon or Holy Cross." That form, as crazy as it sounds, was being passed around by doctors in the area, giving them to patients, because then people-- In that same form, we had a Google form for the seniors to give us their basic information, who wanted help securing appointments. We would ask people, just for data for us, how did you get ahold of our information? How did you get the paper?

They would tell us over and over again, "My doctor gave me your information. They told me to call you because you would be able--" because doctors didn't have vaccines, and because our outreach, we had a Google Voice, we had a Facebook page, we had a Gmail account. We had many ways of people to reach out to us.

Brian Lehrer: One other thing about your story, before we go back to Mitra and take some phone calls, your group primarily works in Montgomery county, Maryland, which like New York is extremely diverse, and was very hard hit by COVID. You noticed there like here, there were few vaccinations of Black and brown people percentage-wise. Your work expanded when the group came across a wave of discrimination that had been hitting Black and brown people, as I think you described it. Can you talk about that wall, and then how you started to get past it?

Maria Peterson: Yes. Because we work directly with the people that needed help with vaccines, we would call them and say, "Hey, we just secured you an appointment." At that moment, the moment we make contact with the people that need your help, they have a phone number, because everything is on your cell phone, recorded. A lot of these people when they arrive to their appointments, because they had our phone number, because we were the ones who secured it for them, they would call us and say "Hey, I'm here at this pharmacy, they're telling me X, Y, and Z," or "They turned me away because of this."

That's when we would be like, "No, no, no, no, no, that is not correct. That is not the correct information." Then we would intervene, talk to the pharmacist, talk to the person in charge, and we would tell these people, try to empower them, "Stand your ground, don't leave, ask to talk to the pharmacist." We have a list of requests for the state of Maryland, like, "Make sure there's signs for people to read." What are their rights? Just like when you go to a museum, just when you go to the airport. When you go to get your driver's license. This is what you need. This is what you bring. This is what they're not supposed to ask you, because everything was very gray.

There was no black and white, and even we were the ones educating the pharmacist about, "No, you don't need a picture ID. Anybody can go and get their vaccine." At least here. You can bring a phone bill. It does not even have to have your picture. You can bring an expired passport from another country. The whole point is connecting the name to the appointment. That's the whole reason why you have to bring something.

We were seeing people being turned away because their pay stub didn't have the logo of the company or they were asked for a teaching license or they were told their passports were expired. They were being told things that were not accurate and we were trying to just empower people and push for the government to have a hotline. We joke about, there's an 800 number for Butterball when you're making a turkey for Thanksgiving. Why do we not have a hotline in the US for people to call and when they're being profiled or turned away from vaccine appointments, why did the government not create such hotline number?

Brian Lehrer: Mitra, we know who it tends to be who have those shaky paperwork issues that worked against them in Montgomery county. Maryland and here in New York and some of those stories are outrageous in terms of the reasons that people were turned away that weren't even actual requirements to get your vaccine, but Mitra what would you like to add?

S. Mitra Kalita: I think it's important to note that, for the volunteers, what became evident on the Zoom calls we've had and even in just hearing Maria talking, the similarities, Brian, between what we've been seeing in New York around documentation and what she's describing in Maryland. Then also, the face of the volunteers and the cell phone numbers. I get chills when she tells that story because I have identical cases of taxi drivers and other folks who have my cell phone number, restaurant workers, and have called me and said, "We're being troubled for our documentation."

For many of us, volunteers, this is very personal. That you mentioned that there's good news this because we've crossed the 50% threshold and we cheer that, but we are also very worried about lower vaccination rates especially among Blacks and Latinos in the, I believe, 18 to 45 age range. They're just not meeting their Asian and white counterparts. In Maria's case, she's half Cuban half Puerto Rican. I'm Indian, was raised in Puerto Rico. These are our people. We are volunteers but we are also fighting for the survival of our communities right now.

I just can't stress enough that we've been doing this for three months. It still feels like the government is not quite meeting us in the places where it would be so much easier for the government to remove these obstacles than for a volunteer to step in and have to literally take one person at a time. These are systemic issues that could much more easily be solved for, and this volunteer force while I celebrated I'm so proud to be a part of it. I'm at a stage where I just feel like we just need to be met a little bit further with some of these very obvious things we're seeing that should be fixed and should have been fixed months ago.

Brian Lehrer: Here in New York City if you had the Mayor's ear on this, which I might have in about 35 minutes, what's the next step you would ask the city of New York to take?

1. Mitra Kalita: I think the basic issues, there's two. One is just signage. I've said this every week, I feel like, but I'm still seeing mobile vaccine sites, nobody knows what they are and we must have the following words in multiple languages. The vaccine is free. You must specify if it's Pfizer, Moderna or J&J. If it's Pfizer, please, put ages 12 and up so people know they can take their children there. That you don't need to have immigration status in order to get it, that you don't need to be insured in order to get it.

Just multiple languages. In our public folder on Epicenter's website we have dozens of maps and flyers that we've translated from the city sites. We've done this through our volunteers who speak multiple languages. We've gone to Reddit groups to crowdsource these. Again, in the beginning I was a little more forgiving, but we're several months into this effort, to not have basic language translation just feels like this will continue to be a Black and brown disease if we do not solve, really, this week I would say, if we do not solve for Black Americans and how we're going to get access to the vaccine.

Then, the second piece beyond signage translation is exactly what I'm talking about this outreach, are we in churches and are we lifting up community ambassadors on the community's terms? Something great about Maria and the fleet of teachers is that the teachers are trusted. I think that's who we really increasingly need to be turning to, to be getting this message out. That's hand in hand with governor.

Brian Lehrer: One particularly striking story that I'd seen from Maria, and, Maria, I'll ask you to tell it, that I'm sure won't surprise you, Mitra, is the story of Salvadoran immigrant Lucia Rodriguez. Maria, would you tell us the story of what happened to her father at a supermarket in Maryland and then how you personally helped de-escalate the situation?

Maria Peterson: Yes. She went with her dad who speaks no English. Her English is limited but still good. She took her dad who's 60 years old to get vaccinated. At that point, because he wasn't 65 in terms of age, they told him he didn't qualify. The moment began with her when she arrived, she felt that she was not being helped the way other people were being helped. She stood there for an hour waiting for her turn.

During that hour she was able to see other white folks come in, be helped, told have a seat, "Do you want to sit down?" For her, they just shush her away and they said, "Don't you need to go grocery shopping or something," and she was like, "No I'm good." This happened at a grocery store. Eventually when it was his turn, he was told he didn't qualify because he wasn't 65 and that was the end of it.

The form they showed him with the qualifications were in English. With somebody who speaks Spanish it's nearly impossible to understand what the paper said, the qualifiers. They basically pushed him away, told him he didn't qualify and he had to leave, but that moment, there were other qualifiers. For example, essential worker, for example, health. If you're diabetic, you don't have to be 65, but because they cut him off at 60 and the way they were treated, she said she left that place humiliated.

She says she almost crashed, just that feeling of the way she was being treated. There's the way of not qualifying and being told in a nice way, but the way she was treated, the way she was made feel was what did it for her. We call, we intervene, the pharmacist didn't even have the computer to look up the information. I was the one over the phone explaining to her, "These are the qualifiers. This is what he falls under."

At the end of the day, I said, "Can he come back and get vaccinated now that we have figure out that he does qualify." At that point, all the vaccines for the day were gone because one of the things we found out is, pharmacists were turning people away because then they were calling their own family and friends, "Hey I got some vaccines for the day," because the people they turned away. At that point, the vaccines were gone.

I called Lucia and I said, "Hey, Lucia, if they are willing to take your dad tomorrow, would you like to return with your dad tomorrow to get him vaccinated?" This is the part that sums it up. This is what she said to me. She's like, "I am not going back to that place tomorrow, because God knows what they're going to put in that syringe to my dad." There the trust is gone, and then that is somebody who, at the end of the day, hopefully, she did get her dad vaccinated somewhere else. If there was another person, they could have said , "Forget this. I'm not getting vaccinated."

Those are the people that we don't want to be walking around unvaccinated. These are the issues. Because of somebody, the way they were being treated and the information that was not given correctly, look what happened. Luckily, he did vaccinated but it could have been somebody else who said, "No, I'm not getting the vaccine."

Brian Lehrer: So many stories like that, unfortunately. Let's wrap this up, Mitra, by telling people about VaxFest2021. Is it something they can sign up for, either to help or to get shots through VaxFest? What can you tell folks?

S. Mitra Kalita: They can even host it. The organizing groups are, as Maria mentioned, Vaccine Hunters, Epicenter, and then a company called Clear Health Costs, that advocates for transparency in healthcare. It's a great outlet. The point of VaxFest is actually something we've talked about, which is our collective responsibility to help our neighbors get vaccinated. Examples of what we're doing are fairs, this weekend in Queens we'll be doing outreach at Ravenswood Houses. We're going to open streets here in Queens in June 12th. St. Mark's church is going to be providing vaccines during a food bank.

If anyone's interested where you have the public, let's say, coming to an event-- gathering places are a great time to both spread the information around vaccines. We find people still have a lot of questions. One thing we can do is connect you to scientists, doctors, and other folks who can answer those questions. The other thing we can do is connect you to the shots themselves. Thankfully, we are seeing a lot of the companies, and the healthcare departments that are giving vaccines, starting to go into mobile units.

They'll send 20 shots to a fair or something like that. If anyone is interested, you can email us hello@epicenter-nyc.com. There is a VaxFest website. I might ask Maria to help me on the name. I think it's VaxFest2021.org. Maria, does that sound right?

Maria Petersen: Yes, perfect. Yes.

S. Mitra Kalita: Okay, perfect.

Brian Lehrer: Say it again, so people get it.

S. Mitra Kalita: VaxFest2021.org. It's VaxFest2021.org. What you're probably hearing is that we are happy to connect neighbors in need of shots, communities that want their neighbors to get shots, doctors, independent pharmacies, healthcare agencies, departments, that say, "We have shots. We have no arms. Can you help us connect?" We really have become a connector of these disparate elements to get America vaccinated.

Brian: S. Mitra Kalita, founder of URL Media and publisher of a news organization Epicenter-NYC, and Maria Peterson, member of the group The Vaccine Hunters ,as they continue to connect harder-to-reach Americans with vaccines. Thank you both for all that you do.

S. Mitra Kalita: Thank you, Brian. Have a great weekend.

Maria Petersen: Thank you.

 

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