Pair of COVID-19 vaccination clinics Saturday

Published 5:54 pm Tuesday, April 13, 2021

Those 16 and older seeking COVID-19 vaccinations have an opportunity to receive their first dose Saturday at the Mack Gaston Community Center.

“We want to make our community healthy again, and this event focuses on those in this community without access to all the other great ways to get COVID-19 shots,” said Tom Pinson, director of the community center. “We’re breaking the language barrier by having bilingual people take appointments and work Saturday.”

The free clinic will be drive-thru, but those without transportation can walk in and still receive a vaccine, said Heather Donahue, director of the DEO Clinic, which is housed at the community center. “We’re trying to remove obstacles, and transportation is an obstacle for some.”

Appointments are recommended, both to ensure a spot, and to “help volunteers work more efficiently,” Donahue said. “If you’re not registered, there’s no guarantee, but we’ll do as many as we can.”

Appointments can be made online through cityofdalton.aidaform.com/deo-04-17-21 or by calling (706) 581-2009, (706) 278-8205 or (706) 529-6427. The clinic will operate from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., and vaccines are provided by the city of Dalton.

“We’re really happy the city of Dalton is helping us be part of the solution” to this pandemic, Donahue said. “The DEO Clinic started to help people on the margins, people who had obstacles to healthcare, and we’re trying to reach people Saturday who haven’t been able to be vaccinated yet.”

Having the event at the community center, which has been the site for mass COVID-19 testing, is beneficial, since “something about this location makes people comfortable, and it’s closer to some neighborhoods where people might have transportation concerns,” she said. The Saturday selection was also deliberate, as “a lot of people can’t take off from work during the week and miss pay, or they need rides from people who can’t (drive them) during the week” but can on weekends.

Most shots will likely be the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, which requires two shots roughly three weeks apart, although some may be the Moderna vaccine, which also requires two shots but approximately two weeks apart, Donahue said. A second and/or third vaccine clinic date for those second shots has not been set, but individuals can also make appointments for their second shots through the Whitfield County Health Department.

Individuals can receive reminders about second doses by signing up for the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) V-Safe tracker online at vsafe.cdc.gov, she said. They can also share any side effects with the CDC through the health tracker.

“There will be nothing else happening here Saturday” but this clinic, which will be equipped with roughly 600 doses, Pinson said. “We’re shutting down for this event, and we’re going to take over the whole parking lot” for the clinic.

Volunteers from the community center, Concerned Clergy of Greater Whitfield County and the DEO Clinic are all involved this week and will be Saturday, Pinson said. “It’s a community effort.”

• Another COVID-19 vaccination clinic Saturday will be at 2518 E. Walnut Ave., in the parking lot of Delray Farms Fresh Market, said America Gruner, founder of Coalicion de Lideres Latinos (CLILA), a grassroots Latino organization that is part of the CDC’s Health Equity Council. “We requested about 500” doses from the city of Dalton, and already approximately 400 individuals have registered.

For more details on this bilingual event, and/or to register, visit https://fb.me/e/3xqteuU76, Gruner said. An appointment time will be provided upon completion of registration.

As of Tuesday, 22% of those in the country had been fully vaccinated, with 36% having received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine, according to The New York Times.

Those hesitant about the vaccines “need to educate themselves with scientific information,” Donahue said. “We have a video with questions and answers” about COVID-19 vaccines designed to reach Spanish speakers available on the Facebook pages of both the DEO Clinic and Digame News.

“We also have informational pamphlets in English and Spanish” that have been given out and posted in local neighborhoods, she said. “It can be a little more difficult to find this information in Spanish.”

“We’re still not out of this pandemic — a lot of people are still getting really sick — so we need to take this tool and use it,” Donahue said. Get vaccinated “for all of us so we can open back up safely.”

“You have to trust the science, and even if you’re not going to (get vaccinated) for yourself, do it for others,” Pinson said. “There are so many carriers walking around not knowing they have COVID-19.”

“I took the shot,” and a main reason why was “for my family, (including) my 104-year-old grandmother,” he added. “If you’re not going to do it for yourself, do it for someone you love so we can get some normalcy back.”