When it came time for residents and staff at the New York Avenue homeless shelter in northeast Washington, D.C., to receive their first doses of Moderna's Covid-19 vaccine, David Durham, who’s lived at the men’s shelter for three years, was scared.
Vaccinating sheltered homeless is supposed to be the easy part, said Dr. Patrick Kachur, a public health expert at Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health. In New York City, some 4,300 residents and staff within the city’s expansive system of homeless shelters have received a vaccine, according to a spokesperson for the Department of Homeless Services. Prior to the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, no existing vaccine has been able to be delivered in a mobile way, and the city hasn’t yet deployed outreach teams with the specified purpose of vaccinating unsheltered individuals, the spokesperson said.
For Laura Zeilinger, the director of the Department of Human Services in Washington, the situation couldn’t be more pressing. Like many West Coast cities, Portland, Oregon, won’t begin vaccinating the homeless until further phases open up, but can do so based on age or condition. A spokesperson for Multnomah County said “the County has sent vaccine teams to our physical distancing shelter to provide vaccines to some people who qualify because of age or medical condition.”
In cities like Dallas, officials are beginning to make mention of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine being used specifically for the homeless.KXAS. "It is to all of our benefit that we vaccinate those who are willing to accept the vaccine in that population. That makes all of us safer."
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