18 SEPTEMBER 2, 2021 RIDGEWOOD TIMES WWW.QNS.COM
BACK TO SCHOOL
Local doctors team up with the Avengers for back-to-school vaccination campaign
BY BILL PARRY
BPARRY@SCHNEPSMEDIA.COM
@QNS
The city is turning to the Avengers to educate
youths across the fi ve boroughs to get vaccinated
against COVID-19.
The 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 three-month
back-to-school campaign directed at underserved
communities across the city and country.
“This 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. This campaign symbolizes where art
meets purpose and shows that people nationwide
can come together and build community, and look
together to the future.”
The 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.
The 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.
“The 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. “There 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.”
The 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 inperson
events and vaccination sites, visit somosvaccinations.
com.
“This 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 by Dean Moses
/somosvaccinations.com
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