Czech mobile team has vaccinated about 100 people against COVID-19 at the Mojžíř housing estate and will visit other excluded localities
At the Mojžíř housing estate in Ústí nad Labem, Czech Republic, local residents were vaccinated yesterday against COVID-19 with the Johnson & Johnson one-time vaccine provided by a mobile vaccination team from the Regional Health association based at Masaryk Hospital. According to Miroslav Brož of the Konexe organization, which aided paramedics on the scene, about 100 people availed themselves of the vaccine.
“If a sudden thunderstorm hadn’t caused the outdoor immunizations to end ahead of time, the number would have been even higher,” Brož told news server Romea.cz. “Among those interested were people who wanted the vaccine but had been unable to register for it online, older people for whom the travel to the vaccination center was too far, people who needed to travel outside the country, or those who are bothered by having to constantly be tested for the virus. However, there were also people interested who had already survived a serious case of COVID-19 or who knew somebody who had died of it.”
Some of those who had been hesitating until now also decided to be vaccinated, and they had mostly been hesitating because of the disinformation they have been encountering on social media. Near the immunization tent they had an opportunity to speak directly with a doctor who answered their questions and explained everything that was necessary, while Brož himself also encouraged others to get immunized.
According to the activist, other people were also convinced by seeing for themselves that their acquaintances who had undergone vaccination have not suffered any aftereffects from it. “At the Mojžíř housing estate, people had been informed in advance, they knew when we were coming, they could anticipate our arrival. They were helpful and kind, there was absolutely no problem,” Markéta Svobodová, head nurse at the Masaryk Hospital, described the course of the immunizations to Romea.cz.
“I was there the entire time and I did not notice that anybody had a problem with this vaccine, on the contrary, people were asking if it was the one-dose vaccine so they wouldn’t have to go somewhere for a second dose. We are vaccinating people with this same vaccine at the Fórum shopping center,” the head nurse said when asked to comment on the allegations published in an article on the iDNES.cz news server yesterday that some locals were concerned that the Roma would be given some kind of “different” vaccine.
“I did not hear anything like that from anybody,” Svobodová told Romea.cz. The mobile vaccination team has been serving the region since February.
“We have been immunizing the residents of retirement homes, social care facilities, and even entire villages. Gradually the need arose to come to the excluded localities because people there are frequently unable to register online,” the head nurse told Romea.cz.
For a vaccination team to visit a locality, the local authority must first contact them, after which the appropriate date and time for the visit is planned and the necessary backup is arranged. The mobile team is planning to visit other excluded localities this month – on 19 August it should make it to the Předlice quarter of Ústí nad Labem, and the town of Děčín is among their planned destinations.
