Metropolitan Center For Mental Health

MCMH COVID-19 Vaccine

As we are all aware, the American health care system suffers from serious inequities in access not only to care, but also in access to reliable medical information. These inequities result in easily preventable illnesses and death. Because there are many mistaken ideas about COVID-19 vaccination, we feel it is important that MCMH/FAIR be part of providing quality information to people who may not get it anywhere else.

Therefore, here is easy access to information about COVID-19 vaccines. Here are some useful links.

CDC Website:
https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/vaccines/index.html

DOHMH Fact Sheet
What New Yorkers Need to Know About COVID-19 Vaccines FAQ 

OMH Vaccine Fact Sheet: 
https://www.coalitionny.org/s/Vaccine-Fact-Sheet-OMH-final.pdf

NYC Vaccine Information Page:
https://www1.nyc.gov/site/doh/covid/covid-19-vaccines.page

We are aware that scheduling a vaccine may be challenging, because the demand for vaccines may be higher than the current supply. This may make it difficult for everyone to get a vaccine as quickly as they may want. Hang in there—we believe that vaccines will eventually be available to all who want them.

An important development in the last few weeks has been that people age 65 and older may now get the vaccine. This age group constitutes 12% of the MCMH patient population. Please let your older patients know about the vaccine.

Here again is the link for the vaccine finder website, on which people may find a location where they can get vaccinated:

https://vaccinefinder.nyc.gov

If you’re one of the lucky few who have already received the COVID-19 vaccine, or if you are on the waiting list, don’t throw away your face mask just yet. Although your body is building up antibodies and immunity to the novel coronavirus, a proper mask, social distancing and hand washing are still necessary to curb the spread of COVID-19. In addition, some of the new variants of COVID-19 may not respond as well to the vaccines, and wearing masks and social distancing are two of our best options to curb the spread of the virus.