Get Out the Vax Campaign: We are not out of danger yet!

Sacramento County has only 47 percent of eligible people fully COVID-19 vaccinated, less than the state average of 51%. And the U.S. has not reached the 70% goal set out by the President. In the nation, about 36% of young adults say they don’t plan to get a vaccine. With the growing prevalence of the Delta variant, which is more infectious than the original virus, it is critical that we quickly get to herd immunity. This will help prevent even more variants from developing. Studies have shown that the vaccines are effective against the Delta variant although to a slightly lesser degree. Unvaccinated folks are completely vulnerable to all COVID-19 virus strains, endangering those who cannot get vaccines for medical reasons as well as those who have not received the vaccine. There are also some breakthrough infections in those who have been vaccinated. Let’s stop the transmission!

To help get the remaining folks in Sacramento and beyond vaccinated, the Sacramento Section volunteers continue to distribute many hundreds of information flyers in English, Spanish and most recently, in Vietnamese to libraries, farmers markets, food banks, churches and social justice organizations. With our new additional focus on teens and young adults, we are now distributing flyers through WIND Youth Services which serves homeless and at risk-youth. This organization was the recipient of our recent Mitzvah in a Minute donations of personal hygiene items.

Let’s take the President’s national goal of 70% vaccinated and help make that happen in Sacramento. For those of you with family and friends not yet vaccinated, please encourage them to protect themselves and others. Unvaccinated people 20-49 years old are driving the pandemic now. Their questions can be answered at CDC.gov and they can find out where the nearest vaccination site is wherever they live in the country:

• Go to vaccines.gov
• Text your ZIP code to 438829
• Call 1-800-232-0233

Or, if they live in California they can also go to the website, MyTurn.ca.gov to make an appointment.

When talking to the young people in your life, here are the top 10 reasons healthy adults need to get vaccinated as soon as possible (Source-CNN Health):

1. COVID-19 doesn’t have to kill you to wreck your life. Young people are experiencing long-term complications including brain fog, respiratory problems, loss of taste and other debilitating symptoms.
2. Strong, healthy immune systems can backfire and cause serious inflammation, leading to hospitalizations and sometimes death.
3. If young people don’t get vaccinated, it could leave everyone vulnerable because the unvaccinated act as hosts for virus mutations which may evade the vaccines.
4. Getting vaccinated will help the economy, which means more jobs for younger employees of businesses which have been closed.
5. Vaccines can save people lots of money. Getting sick means loss of income and medical bills. The COVID-19 vaccine is FREE.
6. Getting vaccinated can up your dating game. Dating apps show that users who have said they would get vaccinated were “liked” 25% more often.
7. About one-third of young people between the ages of 18-25 are at risk of severe COVID-19 because of underlying medical conditions such as obesity and diabetes, and if they are/were smokers.
8. A new strain is spreading rapidly and can be transmitted by talking or breathing.
9. Many of the most vulnerable people are counting on young people to get vaccinated.
10. Children are not eligible to get vaccinated yet but can become ill if exposed. Young adults can protect them by getting the vaccine.

We need help keeping our distribution locations adequately stocked. We also need to translate the flyer into Russian, Hmong, and Arabic. And we welcome all ideas about locations where we can distribute the flyers and other thoughts about how best to get the word out, especially to young people.

Please contact Claire Lipschultz if you would like to join our COVID-19 warrior team. We do good while having fun!