Entrepreneur assembles mass vaccination site for the underserved

VALLEJO, Calif. — At the Solano County Fairgrounds successful Northern California, getting vaccinated is easy. Benjamin Gammon is the Solano County Interim Emergency Medical Services Administrator.

“We person six lines of vaccine from influenza to afloat dose and booster of Moderna to Pfizer, JNJ and pediatric Pfizer,” Gammon said.

For the past fewer weeks, Gammon has been happily vaccinating hundreds of kids. The wide vaccination tract was archetypal acceptable up successful aboriginal February to get shots successful the arms of the underserved.

According to the Kaiser Family Foundation, over the people of the vaccination rollout, Black and Hispanic radical were little apt than their White counterparts to person received a vaccine, but these disparities person narrowed implicit time.

Operations manager Kyle Newport says galore radical of colour aren’t needfully hesitant to get the vaccine. He says disproportionate vaccination rates are mostly owed to deficiency of access.

“People that person the lowest accidental to person gross are usually the past radical to get wellness attraction by opening up and inviting each to travel here, we tin effort to span that gap, marque definite that everybody tin spell to schoolhouse and get a job, tin enactment and tin instrumentality to immoderate benignant of a mean beingness arsenic they knew it earlier the pandemic,” Newport said.

Dinette Thompson who got a booster changeable says she wasn’t hesitant astatine all.

“I americium an indispensable worker," Thompson said. "I enactment astatine a attraction location and I request to person the due vaccinations truthful I won't springiness thing oregon drawback anything. I'm a kid of God, I request to bash what is decent and successful order.”

The antheral down the full cognition is Bill Hammond, the president and laminitis of Hammond Entertainment. He’s typically booking events with A-list celebrities.

“Beyonce, Stevie Wonder, Babyface, Dave Matthews,” Hammond said.

It was erstwhile each the stars were staying location during the pandemic that helium got a telephone from Kaiser.

“Out of the bluish successful January, the elder vice president and the caput doc called me," Hammond said. "He conscionable picked up the telephone and said, ‘Hey, Bill, tin you travel up present and physique and tally logistics and operations for a wide vaccine site? We privation to bash 2,500 - 5000 a day’, and successful 3 seconds. I said ‘yes.’”

For months, he’s been employing hundreds of radical from the assemblage to marque it happen.

Hammond is acquainted with the community. He was calved successful San Francisco and his begetter was an orthopedic surgeon with Kaiser successful Sacramento for decades.

“I'm a number owned institution for 26 years that I deliberation that played a portion that they had truthful galore African Americans up present successful the forefront moving this concern with a batch of different minorities," Hammond said. "I deliberation that was precise helpful. And besides to beryllium an inspiration to them that different institution tin travel successful present that's number owned and tally an cognition of this magnitude with occurrence and grace and compassion.This is the biggest stage, the biggest platform, due to the fact that it's doing truthful overmuch bully successful the assemblage and it's it's and it's an grant for maine to person the accidental to to tally this cognition with my team.”