FOR BREAKING NEWS VISIT WWW.QNS.COM SEPTEMBER 2, 2021 • HEALTH • THE QUEENS COURIER 39
health
Community doctors team up with Avengers
for back-to-school vaccination campaign
Photo by Dean Moses
Queens Chamber launches program to cut prescription costs to members
BY BILL PARRY
bparry@schnepsmedia.com
@QNS
In its ongoing eff orts to support small
businesses recover from the COVID-19
crisis, the Queens Chamber of Commerce
launched the QCC Prescription Discount
Card Program.
Th e program allows chamber members
to be eligible to receive a card that helps
make prescription drug costs as much as
80% lower, providing both brand name
and generic prescription medications.
Th e QCC Prescription Discount Card is
free, with no enrollment fees, premiums
or deductibles and no claim forms, referrals
or paperwork are needed to receive
benefi ts. Additionally, the card is accepted
at 67,000 pharmacies across the country.
“Th e Queens Chamber of Commerce
represents over 1,400 member businesses
with over 150,000 Queens-based employees.
Ninety percent of those businesses
have 10 or fewer employees,” Queens
Chamber of Commerce President and
CEO Th omas J. Grech said. “As the cost
of running a small business continues
to increase, both business owners and
their employees know that every nickel
counts. We are thrilled to help our membership
decrease their medical prescription
costs.”
Th e QCC Prescription Discount Card
is a drug coupon and is not considered
insurance. While it cannot be combined
with insurance, members can use the card
instead of insurance if:
• A drug isn’t covered by insurance
• Current insurance plan has no drug
coverage
• Current insurance plan has a high
deductible
• Member has met a low medicine cap
BY BILL PARRY
bparry@schnepsmedia.com
@QNS
Th e city is turning to the Avengers to
educate youths across the fi ve boroughs to
get vaccinated against COVID-19.
Th e collaboration between Marvel
Entertainment and the real-life superheroes
from SOMOS Community Care, the
New York City-based healthcare network
that has been on the front lines of the fi ght
against the pandemic, will launch a threemonth
back-to-school campaign directed
at underserved communities across the
city and country.
“Th is road to recovery runs through
the immigrant communities of color that
have been hit hardest by this pandemic
and left behind in a vaccine roll-out
marked by inequity and misinformation
campaigns,” said SOMOS US Co-founder
Henry. R Muñoz, III. “Being able to unite
Marvel Entertainment with the trusted
voices from the community doctors of
SOMOS Community Care in a public
education campaign designed to drive
awareness is a really big deal. Th is campaign
symbolizes where art meets purpose
and shows that people nationwide
can come together and build community,
and look together to the future.”
Th e campaign will extend through
Hispanic Heritage Month and include
the distribution of a limited-edition
comic book, “AVENGERS: WE ARE
RESILIENT,” and poster series, as well as
in-person events to encourage families to
learn more about the vaccine.
Th e campaign is being well received in
Queens, which was known as the “epicenter
of the epicenter” during the height of
the pandemic, and which has numerous
communities that lag behind the city in
vaccinations.
“Th e frontline workers of Queens who
have sacrifi ced so much over the past 18
months to save lives and keep our borough
afl oat in our time of need are society’s
true superheroes. But there’s a superhero
in each of us, too — all you have
to do is get vaccinated against COVID-
19,” Queens Borough President Donovan
Richards said. “Every Queens resident
has the ability to keep their community
safe from this villainous pandemic, and
I thank SOMOS Community Care and
Marvel for their innovative partnership to
inspire confi dence in these safe, free and
eff ective vaccines.”
Students are heading back to school
as the delta variant continues to spread,
making it critical to educate families and
children about the importance of vaccinations.
“I applaud Marvel Entertainment and
SOMOS for partnering together to promote
awareness of the COVID-19 vaccine
in a back-to-school campaign for
Black, Hispanic, Asian and other minority
communities in NYC,” Congresswoman
Grace Meng said. “Th ere has been so
much misinformation and disinformation
surrounding the vaccine and this eff ort
comes at a critical time as we prepare to
send our students — the future leaders of
America — back to in-person learning.
Dispelling myths and outright falsehoods
will help increase the number of vaccinated
students in NYC. I look forward to the
campaign’s success.”
Th e three-month campaign includes a
special edition comic, stand-alone posters
and a “video comic” which can be viewed
at somosvaccinations.com.
For more information on SOMOS and
to fi nd in-person events and vaccination
sites, visit somosvaccinations.com.
“Th is partnership between Marvel and
SOMOS Community Care is the type of
innovative, community work that sets
New York City apart,” Congresswoman
Carolyn Maloney said. “I cannot wait
to see the comics celebrating our frontline
heroes and know that this community
outreach campaign will help make our
city safer and healthier.”
Photo via Getty Images
SOMOS community doctors join the Avengers to promote vaccine awareness in underserved communities.
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