ST. LOUIS — Two St. Louis-area COVID-19 mass vaccination clinics wrapped up their services Tuesday.
The clinics were located at the Dellwood Recreation Center and St. Louis Community College-Forest Park. For city and county governments to organizations like the Urban League, mass vaccination clinics were a part of our world for several months.
Late Tuesday morning at St. Louis Community College's Forest Park campus, there was no waiting; you were next in line. It’s a far cry from the early days of these clinics, when people stood in line for hours in all kinds of weather for a chance to get a shot in the arm.
At the Urban League-sponsored mass vaccination clinic at the Dellwood Recreation Center, Horace and Carolyn Kemp waited until the last day because they were hesitant.
“There were issues on the news about J&J, you know, with women having blood clots,” Horace said.
“We had concern for those women, period. But, yes, we feel better about that,” Carolyn added.
Missouri Army National Guard personnel assisted at more than 200 St. Louis-area clinics, administering more than 21,500 doses.
“We’ve been able to reach a lot of people and get a lot of people taken care of,” Specialist Andersen McCrary said.
A reporter pointed out Guard members were shown a lot of gratitude from the public at those clinics.
“Oh, absolutely,” he said. “It’s been wonderful the amount of support we’ve been shown.”
“To bring this to Dellwood, which is in the center of the African-American community in north St. Louis County, really made the vaccine accessible,” Urban League Vice-President of Public Safety James Clark said.
Dr. Jason Newland is a Washington University pediatric infectious disease specialist.
“The mass vaccination clinics have worked, well,” said Dr. Newland. “The fact that we can make it easier for people to come in in large numbers and get vaccinated works well, and as we saw our country get up to over two million doses a day because we increased the access.”
Clark said the Urban League is considering a request that Army National Guard personnel remain activated to help get kids at Missouri schools vaccinated.