In the spirit of Ut Prosim, (That I May Serve), a group of dedicated and creative Virginia Tech students and faculty, in partnership with the Virginia Department of Health (VDH), is working to make vaccines more available to the community with mobile vaccine clinics and the COVID vaccine car.
As the Delta variant of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, circulates throughout Virginia, it is more important than ever that people get vaccinated to help protect the vulnerable in their community like children and those who are immunocompromised.
The mobile vaccine clinics are a partnership between the Virginia Tech represented by the COVID-19 Crushers, the New River Health District (NRHD), VDH, the Edward Via College of Osteopathic Medicine (VCOM), and the New River Valley Public Health Task Force that aims to make COVID-19 vaccinations easy, safe, and accessible while providing vaccine education to the community. The COVID-19 Crushers have held 11 vaccine clinics and vaccinated more than 600 people in the New River Valley community.
“We were so excited to be onsite again at Claytor Lake to provide the Pfizer, Moderna, and Johnson & Johnson vaccines for free so that our community members have a choice and convenient access to COVID-19 vaccine education,” said India Collins, a medical assistant from VDH.
“Our mobile vaccine clinics have been successful to help get underserved community members and those with vaccine hesitancy concerns vaccinated,” Collins said. “We meet the community members where they are at, and our clinics provide a relaxed setting where people can be more receptive to vaccine education and outreach.”
The grassroots effort is being facilitated by the COVID-19 Crushers, a dedicated group of undergraduates, graduate students, and faculty ambassadors from Virginia Tech helping to spread facts, not fear, about the coronavirus in the New River Valley.
“Many people come to the lake with their family and friends, so we are able to educate and vaccinate large groups of people at a time. This helps protect our community as a whole,” said Fernanda Gutierrez , one of the founding members of the COVID-19 Crushers and a Master of Public Health graduate student from the Virginia-Maryland College of Veterinary Medicine. “We have doctors on staff from VCOM who are able to talk with patients about their concerns. We are grateful to Virginia Tech, the TECH Together Campaign, and the Town of Blacksburg for providing us with funding. The COVID vaccine car helps us transport supplies to our mobile vaccination clinics.”
Seth Coble, a community member who was vaccinated at the mobile vaccine clinic at Claytor Lake on July 24, said, “The vaccine was very accessible. I got the vaccine to help protect my community and to do my part to help the pandemic end more quickly.”
Mobile vaccine clinic staff members are selecting their vaccination sites by looking for areas where they can make vaccines easily accessible to remote areas, underserved populations, and people who lack access to transportation. “Our education and outreach and mobile vaccine clinics allow us to meet community members where they are. We have set up mobile vaccine clinics at local mobile homes, restaurants, construction sites, and created drive-thru clinics to make vaccination more accessible to everyone in the community,” said Teagan Neveldine from the COVID-19 Crushers.
Other leaders on the New River Valley Public Health Task Force include Matt Hulver, executive director of the Fralin Life Sciences Institute at Virginia Tech; Blacksburg Police Chief Anthony Wilson; Noelle Bissell, director of the New River Health District; Carla Finkielstein, Carla Finkielstein, an associate professor at the Fralin Biomedical Research Institute at VTC; and Ron Fricker.
