NYC Coronavirus Vaccine Effort Reaches Out To Holocaust Survivors

New York City NY

10 February, 2021

4:42 PM

Description

NEW YORK CITY — One of human history's worst atrocities befell many who call New York City home. Now, they're among the most vulnerable to a once-in-a-century deadly pandemic. A new effort will reach out to Holocaust survivors to get them the coronavirus vaccine, Mayor Bill de Blasio said Wednesday. De Blasio said the initiative sprang out of a recent discussion he had at Gracie Mansion with Orthodox Jewish leaders. "There's definitely still issues of hesitancy around the vaccine, but there's also a lot of seniors who desperately want the vaccine, and we need to reach them," he said. "The most pointed part of the discussion revolved around seniors, who literally experienced one of the most horrific events in world history — Holocaust survivors, people who went through that totally destructive, horrible moment in history, and survived and carried on and kept their faith." Jewish community organizations across the five borough will partner with the city to reach out to Holocaust survivors, de Blasio said. It's no secret New York City has the largest Jewish community outside of Israel. Many Holocaust survivors settled in the city after World War II. To have lived through the Holocaust — which ended in 1945 as the Nazi regime fell — makes a person eligible for the coronavirus vaccine by age alone. Currently, New Yorkers who are 65 and over are eligible for the vaccine. De Blasio didn't give many other details on the outreach effort to Holocaust survivors, but it fits with his larger calls to expand vaccine efforts even as supply lags.