Vaccine Outreach Crew Hits The Hill

Mayor Justin Elicker stopped at 486 Howard Ave. to pitch neighbors on getting their Covid-19 vaccines. He received another pitch in return — for a giant, freshly-caught fish.

That interaction took place Saturday as around 20 canvassers joined the mayor and trekked around the Hill in the city’s latest push to get residents vaccinated.

They assuaged vaccine fears and pointed interested neighbors to the Cornell Scott Community Health Care Van, which was stationed at the Star of Jacob Church from 1 to 4 p.m., one of half a dozen clinics being held around the city Saturday.

This canvass, organized by the city’s health department in partnership with American Red Cross, CARE, URU and Medical Reserve Core (MRC), came on the heels of similar canvassing efforts in Fair Haven, Newhallville, and Dixwell.

City Community Services Administrator Mehul Dalal noted a cause for celebration: New Haven is nearing its 50,000th vaccination.

Still, Saturday’s event demonstrated the challenges health officials continue to face in upping the percentage of vaccinated citizens, due to misinformation, hesitancy, and barriers to access.

Dreamcatcher Green, who attempted to sell Elicker the fish, said that he had been vaccinated through his workplace. His friend, Lawrence Gore, however, is determined not to get the vaccine.

“I don’t get the flu, and I never get sick,” Gore said. ​“I’m not saying I’m better than anybody, but I don’t want to get injected with something I don’t have. I know my body.”

In the end, neither side made a successful sale: The mayor declined the fish, joking that it was because the fish had been caught in Derby and not in New Haven. Elicker pushed Gore to ​“keep thinking on it.”

The canvass primarily covered Wards 4 and 5 in the Hill, with Ward 5 Alder Kampton Singh and Elicker tag-teaming sections of Howard Avenue and Spring Street.

The city targeted the area based on maps that identify areas of lower vaccination rates, according to public health emergency response coordinator Megan Casey. ​“We’re trying to bring access and knowledge, and break down those barriers,” she said.

Casey’s colleague. Ermonda Gjoni-Markaj, added that many of the residents she talked to are still wanting to ​“wait and see” the effects on other people before receiving the vaccine.

Another part of the strategy was bringing in physicians themselves as trusted sources of information. Both Dr. Dalal and Yale School of Medicine professor Dr. Leslie Sude joined Saturday’s team.

Sude, who earlier that day had also run another mobile clinic through Yale’s Community Health Care Van, said that smaller, targeted events like this one have become the dominant strategy in recent months.

“We’re a totally different animal — we’re there to fill in the gaps,” Sude said. ​“We can’t give thousands of vaccines a day, but what we can do is strategically plan to visit areas of the community that were never going to go to the mass vaccination sites.”

Cornell Scott Hill Health’s clinic van was delivered just two weeks ago, according to Director of Marketing and Community Relations Carlah Esdaile-Bragg. The sizable van allows the clinic to run more efficiently with just the one vehicle going into neighborhoods instead of two smaller ones, as it had done before.

“We’re working with churches and community organizations, and collaboratively with other clinics as well,” Esdaile-Bragg said. ​“It’s really refreshing to see all of us coming together to work, share schedules and make sure that we’re not tripping over each other.”

Ward 4 Alder Evelyn Rodriguez noted that Star of Jacob Church was the first Latino congregation established in New Haven. Saturday’s event, she said, was an opportunity to reach people in the Hill’s Latino-heavy wards who may be hearing ​“negative information” about vaccines from social media and other sources. Flyers with bilingual resources were handed out at each door.

Elicker got a chance to flex his Spanish skills on the route.

“My Spanish isn’t perfect,” he told residents before launching into the communal benefits of vaccines.

Vaccines weren’t the only concern on Saturday. Elicker stopped at a garage sale on Spring Street, visiting with a group of 11 Spanish speakers, most of whom said they had gotten the vaccine. One, who gave his name as Israel, had not. What was more concerning to him, he said in English, is a ​“clandestine bar” that has begun operating down the street. Motorcyclists from other states had been traveling in the area recently, he added, making his family feel unsafe.

The mayor ended up passing the concern along to the fire marshal’s office. He then asked Israel if there was any specific concern that kept him from getting the vaccine.

“There’s no reason behind it,” he said. ​“I’m just making the choice not to get it.”

In the end, the mayor convinced one resident, Wilmerris Ramos of Spring Street, to receive a vaccine. Ramos had previously believed that she would need an appointment to receive a vaccine. She said she was ​“surprised” to hear that walk-ins were available so nearby. She was also glad to hear that the clinic offered both the Pfizer and Johnson & Johnson vaccines, since she didn’t trust the Johnson & Johnson’s effectiveness.

Fifteen minutes after speaking to Elicker, she was out the door and headed to the clinic two blocks away.

By the time the first group of canvassers arrived back at the clinic, about half a dozen people had jumped in line to get their shots.