Coordinating efforts with former Congressman Bob Brady and stakeholders, faith-based organizations and health systems to utilize large unused parking lots throughout the city for drive-through vaccinations
PHILADELPHIA – Citing confusion, misinformation and the out-sourcing of the city’s vaccine distribution effort that has been shut down, Councilmember Allan Domb (At Large) called on the Mayor’s Administration to improve the vaccination roll-out immediately before the city receives an increased number of vaccines from the federal government.
“The multiple websites, lack of coordinated data collection, and the delay in ramping up an intake portal have all led to confusion and frustration for Philadelphians,” said Councilmember Domb. “We continue to be in a time where every decision literally may mean the difference between life and death.”
To provide a strategy to prepare the city for the increased vaccine doses from D.C., Councilmember Domb and former Congressman Bob Brady are collaborating with several partners to utilize large unused parking lots across the city to create mass drive-through vaccination clinics. These sites would include church parking lots, labor union hall lots and other sites such as Rivers Casino.
“The best practice for safely administering vaccines is keeping people in their cars, rather than herding them together in convention centers and indoor arenas,” said Councilmember Domb. “As the Biden Administration ramps up vaccine production and delivery, Philadelphia must ramp up its capacity to get the vaccine in the arms of our people as quickly and efficiently as possible.”
“We must ensure that every neighborhood in our city has access to the vaccines and what we have here is a group of people and organizations who are putting their hands up, offering to be a part of a team to get the job done right. When the supply comes, we’re going to need everyone to step up and participate in mass vaccination campaigns. Here’s a team of people ready to go.”
The drive-through vaccine clinics would be available to all Philadelphia residents. The sites will be designed to allow residents to receive the vaccinations even if they do not have a vehicle.
“This is just one solution to begin to use the non-profit sector in innovative ways to move vaccines out safely and quickly,” said Councilmember Domb. “We must constantly push ourselves to innovate in vaccine delivery. Coordinating our health system assets with our labor unions is one means of getting ourselves prepared for a more robust citywide vaccination effort.”
Councilmember Domb initially reached out to former Congressman Bob Brady to coordinate the effort among the health systems, churches and labor unions.
“I want to thank our health systems and labor organizations for stepping up and continuing to be leaders with the city’s response to the pandemic,” said Brady. “In the last 48 hours, I have reached out to Jefferson, Temple University, Drexel University, Penn Medicine, and Einstein Health – all expressed an interest in working with labor to make these sites a reality.
In addition, Councilmember Domb discussed opportunities to partner with the incredible efforts led by Dr. Ala Stanford and the Black Doctors Covid-19 Consortium. As they continue to work around the clock to supply testing and vaccinations, the additional sites would be an opportunity for the organization to have additional space as their work continues to ramp up.
Councilmember Domb and the partnering organizations look forward to coordinating this effort with Philadelphia Health Commissioner Dr. Thomas Farley and his staff.
“We want to ensure that as the federal government places more vaccines in our hands, we get it into the arms of Philadelphians as quickly and safely as possible.”
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Photo: U.S. Secretary of Defense, used under Creative Commons license.
