GET OUT THE VAX campaign
About Get Out the Vax Campaign
NCJW Sacramento launched its “Get Out the Vax” campaign to encourage and support our community in helping to defeat the COVID-19 pandemic which has killed over 560,000 Americans. One in 968 people have died from the COVID 19 virus in Sacramento County since January 2020. Sacramento County is at high risk of exposure to COVID 19. As of April 24, 2021, 24% of Sacramento County residents have been fully vaccinated. In addition to fatalities, the pandemic has destroyed millions of jobs (mostly impacting women) and has thrown many of our neighbors into poverty. The primary focus of our campaign is encouraging as many of us as possible to get vaccinated against COVID-19 as soon as the vaccine is available to us. By getting vaccinated, we protect our own health as well as the health of others. Torah, Talmud and rabbinic teachings instruct us that saving lives must direct our actions (Pikuach nefesh).
COVID-19 is the greatest public health emergency of the past 100 years. It threatens thousands more lives and seriously endangers our economy. Not surprisingly, the harm disproportionately falls on communities of color. Currently, as we all know, the pandemic is surging in some places.
That’s the bad news. The good news is that almost miraculously in less than a year we have effective vaccines against the virus. However, vaccines will only save lives and livelihoods and begin to restore normality if at least 70-75 percent of our population is vaccinated, which is a huge public health challenge. There are lots of logistical barriers but, equally importantly, there are major psychological barriers. Many people mistrust the vaccines, mistrust the government distributing them, or both.
That’s where NCJW Sacramento comes in. We believe that faith-based organizations, such as ours, need to be part of the solution by reaching out to our communities to answer people’s questions, address their fears, and help overcome any other barriers to them accessing the vaccines. NCJW Sacramento is committed to providing you and anyone you think would be interested with regularly updated information about the vaccines, the vaccination effort in Sacramento, and how you can best support it.
For information about eligibility and vaccination locations, visit https://www.saccounty.net/COVID-19/Pages/CoronavirusVaccine.aspx
For California vaccination information outside of Sacramento:
https://myturn.ca.gov/
For general information about the vaccine, visit the CDC website: https://www.cdc.gov/
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! Click here to read more.
What is more patriotic than saving lives in our communities and country?
July 4th is the deadline set by President Biden to get 70% of eligible people vaccinated against the COVID-19 virus, but Sacramento is seriously lagging that goal with only about 51% of our eligible residents vaccinated. So we are ramping up our Get Out the Vax campaign.
Both the federal and state governments are offering folks a whole raft of incentives to get vaccinated and the tools to make it as easy as possible. A simple text, phone call or website search will automatically provide information about the nearest vaccine site to one’s zip code. And to reduce barriers to getting there, people can get free rides on Lyft/Uber and free childcare for vaccine visits through July 4th. In addition, California is offering $50 gift cards to the first 2 million people who get vaccinated, as well as lottery gifts such as sports tickets and merchandise, food, and a California dream vacation.
Our job is to get out the word. We have a leaflet (now in both Spanish and English and soon other languages) telling people how to take advantage of these options. We’re taking them to organizations willing to distribute them (like food banks, churches, libraries, social service and social justice organizations) and we’re doing some leafleting in farmers’ markets, malls, and other places people gather.
The response we’ve received is terrific – including organizations in San Francisco that are distributing leaflets to their home care workers. But we need more troops. The big push is between now and July 4th but we’ll continue after then as well. So please join us! It’s fun and really important.
If you are willing to take flyers to places like libraries and food banks and/or hand them out in markets and malls, contact Claire Lipschultz. Just let us know what you feel comfortable doing and where. Of course, we can create teams of us to work together. Let’s do it!
We Can Do This COVID-19 Community Corps
NCJW Sacramento is proud to be a member of the Covid-19 Vaccination Community Corps, an initiative of the White House, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that is aimed at providing accurate, science-based information on the COVID-19 vaccine to communities across the country. Our National office is one of the founding members of the Community Corps. Our Jewish text and values require us to save lives and widespread vaccinations will do just that. So let’s go for it!! Good luck and we’d love to hear what kind of responses you get.
Everyone over 12 years of age is now eligible to be vaccinated! Help spread the word!
On May 10, 2021, the FDA authorized giving the Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine to adolescents. Following this announcement, the CDC held a panel meeting to discuss the effectiveness and overall safety of this shot in the given age group and unanimously concluded in its favor.
CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) concluded that the advantages of vaccinating outweigh the risks from the vaccine. In addition, fourteen of its panel members voted to lower the minimum age to 12.
Through the current pandemic, Covid-19 has become one of the ten most common causes of death in children ages 12 to 17. In fact, between January and April 2020, the deadly virus took 127 deaths in adolescents, accounting for 1.3% of deaths in the given age group.
Dr. Sara Oliver of the ACIP Covid-19 Vaccine Group commented on these figures: “While this sounds low, it’s worth noting that this would still be in the top 10 causes of deaths among children.”
Dr. Oliver pointed out that Covid-19 can develop severely in 12 to 17 year-olds. She noted that over the past year, “There have been over 1.5 million reported cases and over 13,000 hospitalizations to date among adolescents 12 to 17 years.”
Yet another benefit of vaccinating this age group is that they are more likely infection carriers than younger children.
The biopharmaceutical companies have tested the vaccine in 1,000 teenagers along with an equal number of placebo tests. Of the 2,260 participants, only 16 were infected with Covid-19, and that too because they were in the placebo group. Dr. Oliver said, “The clinical trial for the Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine demonstrated efficacy against symptomatic, laboratory-confirmed Covid-19. The efficacy was 100%.”
The vaccine proved to be quite successful also because none of the tested developed any severe reactions. The worst side effects of the shot among these adolescents were arm pain and headaches.
Vaccine makers including Pfizer-BioNTech are currently testing its vaccine on younger age groups including 5 to 11 year-olds, 2 to 4 year-olds, and infants 6 months to 2 years old.
Get Out the Vax 2.0
Everyone in the nation over 12 years is eligible to get vaccinated against COVID-19. Outreach now to younger people is especially important. Eighteen to 29 year olds are reported to be a significant group with vaccine hesitancy, and in some studies, even those in their 30-40’s are hesitant. Regardless of immigration status, everyone can use this link to make an appointment: https://myturn.ca.gov/. As we launch our Get Out the Vax (GOTV) 2.0 campaign, we’re asking all of you with younger relatives or friends to reach out to them now, inform them that they’re finally eligible, and encourage them to get vaccinated. You’re what the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) calls a “trusted messenger” of information.
We are sharing with you examples of short notes you might send, and language choices, based on communication experts’ advice about the best way to encourage vaccinations. They suggest avoiding language that is negative or shaming, avoiding claims that are unproven, keeping it positive, and – most importantly – making it your own. View this link: How to Encourage COVID-19 Vaccinations.
If your friend or family member would like to join our gallery of photos of young people with their “shot in the arm” we’d love to have them as vaccination ambassadors. Contact Claire Lipschultz to share your photos.
Get Out the Vax Photo Gallery
View our encouragement photo gallery of members who received their shots.
VaxFacts Newsletter
As new information becomes available, we will send it to you through VaxFacts, which will aggregate information from a wide range of available and reliable sources. To receive the VaxFacts bulletin and alerts about programming, please sign-up here: https://forms.gle/Mwtkowz5DDV31J8G6. View current issues of VaxFacts, which is current as of the date indicated:
VaxFacts, January 15, 2021
VaxFacts, February 1, 2021
Get Out the Vax programming
On January 28, NCJW Sacramento held a “town hall” virtual meeting with Dr. Jeffrey Brodovsky, a family physician here in Sacramento, to answer questions about Covid-19, the vaccines, and more. Thanks so much, Dr. Brodovsky!