Queens officials urge NYC to address borough’s ‘vaccine deserts’

Brent Weitzberg, the director of health, human services and seniors in the Borough President’s Office, questioned Health Department officials about the lack of vaccine sites in communities with poor transit service. Photo courtesy of St. John’s Episcopal Hospital

By Rachel Vick

Participants at a forum hosted by the Queens Borough President’s Office called on New York City to establish inoculation sites in the borough’s various “vaccine deserts” Tuesday.

A “vaccine finder” map created by New York City shows just three vaccine sites in the entire Rockaway Peninsula and just a handful in much of Northeast Queens, Southeast Queens and parts of Central Queens. There are none in Maspeth and Middle Village, for example.

Attendees at the virtual town hall asked city officials when more vaccine sites would be established.

Many of the areas with few vaccine sites also lack consistent public transit options, said Brent Weitzberg, the deputy chief of staff in the Borough President’s Office. He reiterated the contents of a letter sent by Borough President Donovan Richards and other Queens elected officials to Mayor Bill de Blasio and Gov. Andrew Cuomo earlier this month.

“Eastern and northern Queens [are] sites that should be looked at within the borough particularly because they are a great example of transportation deserts,” Weitzberg said. “Transportation deserts along with vaccine deserts are a co-occurrence that makes it harder to get a shot.”

Dr. Torian Easterling, the Health Department’s chief equity officer, said the city plans to establish more vaccine sites in those communities as supply becomes available. On Wednesday, a day after the event, Mayor Bill de Blasio announced that snowstorms throughout the country had further limited the number of doses making it to New York City.

“We’re continuing to look at the ways to fill in the gaps, like working with health centers to distribute because trust is already built with patients there,” Easterling said.

He also addressed zip code-level vaccine disparities revealed in new city data Tuesday. 

Many of the communities hardest-hit by the pandemic, particularly areas with large Black and Latino populations, have among the lowest vaccine rates in Queens.  In predominantly Black neighborhoods of Jamaica, Springfield Gardens and St. Albans, just 2 percent of adults have received their first COVID vaccines, the data shows.

“Black, Latinx, East Asian, South Asian, Indo-Carribean and immigrant communities have been the hardest hit ... so it’s imperative that us as elected officials and the city work together 24/7 to get the vaccine administered to members of these groups,” Weitzberg said. “We’ve come so far since the pandemic has begun, but we can’t stop now.”

Overall positivity rates have decreased, Easterling noted. The city is also waiting on a new Johnson and Johnson vaccine to be approved by the federal government, he added.

In the meantime, Easterling urged Queens residents to continue social distancing and wearing masks.

“There are variants — viruses change,” he added.  “What cannot change are the prevention measures.”

Eligible New Yorkers can make limited COVID-19 vaccine appointments by calling 877-vax-4nyc or visiting vaccinefinder.nyc.gov.