Southern BK pols call
for more sites, doses
BY JESSICA PARKS
Southern Brooklyn pols
are calling on the city and
state to open more vaccination
sites in their part of the
borough — which is home to
some of the highest infection
rates and largest population
of seniors in the city.”
“We are in a race against
time and our communities
need access to the COVID
vaccine now,” state Sen. Andrew
Gounardes said.
There are no vaccination
sites operating in seven
southern Brooklyn zip codes,
and there are too few sites
for the area as a whole, according
to Gounardes. City
maps displaying vaccination
sites show fi ve locations currently
serving the southeastern
section of Brooklyn from
Coney Island to Canarsie.
“There are very few
sites in southern Brooklyn,
including none in 11209,
11234, 11204, 11223, 11228,
11229, and 11425,” said
Gounardes, who on Jan. 14
penned a letter with City
Councilman Justin Brannan
and Assemblywoman
Mathylde Frontus urging
Mayor Bill de Blasio to address
the so-called “vaccination
desert.”
Southern Brooklyn has
been a part of the borough
especially impacted by the
coronavirus outbreak, as
the 11235 zip code currently
leads the city for highest positivity
rate and much of the
area was under increased
shutdowns in the fall as part
of the state’s controversial
cluster restrictions.
City health offi cials have
hinted that they will open
more sites across the Five
Boroughs once they receive
larger quantities of the vaccine,
which is currently in
dramatically short supply.
New York City has received
558,425 portions of the fi rst
dose of the vaccine, and
has administered 550,715 of
those to citizens — leaving
them with less than 8,000
doses of the vaccine on
hand as of Jan. 26, according
to the city’s data.
Whenever those new
doses do arrive, the politicians
argue that southern
Brooklyn should be considered
one of the more urgent
areas of the city to get
vaccinated due to its infection
rates and senior populations,
and requested
that the city both allocate
a higher percentage of the
doses and bring more vaccination
sites to the area.
“We need to see the
city putting in resources
in those areas that need it
most. My district needs it
most,” said Councilman
Chaim Deutsch, who represents
parts of Sheepshead
Bay, Brighton Beach and
Manhattan Beach.
The lack of sites forces
seniors to travel, which
might require taking public
transit or driving, and
instead electeds and their
constituents ask that there
be vaccination locations
within walking distance of
their homes.
“We need something
nearby so people can reach
them pretty easily, even walk
to,” said Ed Jaworski, executive
vice-president of the
Madison-Marine-Homecrest
Civic Association.
Coney Island reps City
Councilman Mark Treyger
and state Sen. Diane Savino
hosted a presser on Jan. 26
calling on the city to introduce
a cohesive plan to vaccinate
the city’s homebound
seniors as well as improve
access to the senior population
as a whole.
Earlier this month,
Deutsch penned a letter recommending
the city launch
sites at the Shorefront YMYWHA
in Brighton Beach
and in the large parking lot
at Manhattan Beach Park,
while also calling on more
vaccine doses allocated to his
edge of the borough, where
he said shortages have also
been leaving many seniors
willing to travel unable to
book an appointment.
Jaworski, a 76-year-old
resident of Madison, said
he has been trying to book
an appointment daily at his
closest vaccine site — a Rite
Aid on Nostrand Avenue in
Flatlands — to no avail since
Jan. 12, receiving a response
that there are no vaccines
available within a range of
50 miles every time.
“I have been trying to
reach that site ever since
they changed the category
for who’s eligible,” Jaworski
said. “I have been trying
daily for two weeks and
every time nothing is available.”
COURIER LIFE, JAN. 29-FEB. 4, 2021 5
“There is not enough education,”
Deutsch said. “People
are constantly on social media...
they need to re-educate
people constantly because
people always believe the last
thing they read.”
But most importantly, he
said the city needs to designate
vaccinations to southern
Brooklyn, especially his district,
where there is an outsized
senior population and
coronavirus cases are soaring.
“My constituents are telling
me they are trying to get
Three southern Brooklyn zip codes
rank among the highest in the city
for testing positivity rate, whereas
the area lacks proper vaccine distribution
centers — with no vaccination
sites in seven zip codes.
Lloyd Mitchell (left)
NYC Health Department (Top)
appointments,” Deutsch said.
“We need to see the city putting
in resources in those areas
that need it most. My district
needs it most.”
Sheepshead Bay resident
Ned Berke expressed frustration
at the infection rate
in a neighborhood Facebook
group.
“Keep up the hard work of
wearing masks around your
chins, coughing into the markets’
open salad bar, and generally
not giving a s---,” he
wrote. “Sheepshead proud.”