New Vaccination Effort in New Bedford Brings Shots to the People

From fairytales to Hollywood blockbusters, "the rule of three" suggests good things come in threes. Now, some New Bedford-based organizations are coming together to hope that the rule of three will help boost the city's COVID-19 vaccination rate.

Pam Cole, a member of the Commission for Citizens with Disabilities, announced on WBSM a new program developed to vaccinate New Bedford residents in the comfort of their homes, in hopes of raising the stagnant local vaccination numbers.

"We're 10 percent below the state average, but if we wanted to get to 70 percent, it would take 30,000 people, and that's a lot of people," Cole said.

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The idea behind this new focus is to get the word out not only about a new in-home program for vaccinations, but also to have each person that finds out about it to share the information with three other people that might be interested in taking advantage, thereby creating a grassroots push to help vaccinate those who cannot leave their homes to get a shot.

"We're asking (for people) to think of three people – it's called tripling – and tell them about getting vaccinated at home," Cole said.

The initiative is from the newly-created Vaccination Connect Network, led by Carl Alves, Executive Director of Positive Action Against Chemical Addiction (PAACA). Seven well established agencies are working together to form one network aimed at vaccinating local residents at home: PAACA; Pace, Inc.; People Acting in Community Endeavors; the United Way of Greater New Bedford; the Community Economic Development Center; the Immigrants Assistance Center; the Inter-Church Council of Greater New Bedford; and the New Bedford Commission for Citizens with Disabilities.

Cole said Downtown New Bedford, the One SouthCoast Chamber, SouthCoast Community Foundation, New Bedford Economic Development Council and the Inter-Church Council all helped spread the word to thousands across the city by sending out the information in email blasts to their subscribers.

"We have several outreach teams going house to house, organized block by block, and my plan as well calls for knocking on the door of every disabled resident," she said.

If you or someone you know would like an in-home COVID-19 vaccination, call (508) 991-6199 to schedule a visit.

Cole said the network is also distributing flyers throughout the city to be posted in businesses' windows to help spread the word.

Bourassa's True Value Hardware on 1837 Acushnet Avenue was the first business in New Bedford to post the new number and information, and the hope is that with the help of everyone reading this, many others will step up as well.