First Lady, Fauci Visit Harlem Vaccine Clinic: PHOTOS

Harlem NY

07 June, 2021

10:03 AM

Description

HARLEM, NY — Harlem's storied Abyssinian Baptist Church hosted a new set of distinguished visitors on Sunday: First Lady Dr. Jill Biden and Dr. Anthony Fauci, who celebrated the church's coronavirus vaccine clinic during their visit to the neighborhood. Fauci and Biden traveled separately from Washington, D.C., with both arriving at the basement clinic just before 4 p.m. Sunday — joined by U.S. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand. Just before their arrival, workers from the city's Test and Trace Corps canvassed passersby and asked if they had gotten vaccinated yet. They managed to get about a dozen signups, many of them teenagers, according to a reporter at the scene. The trio met with leaders from Choose Healthy Life — a group of Black clergy led by Abyssinian Rev. Calvin O. Butts, III, which has worked to urge Black Americans to get the COVID-19 vaccine. Jill Biden (center) and Dr. Anthony Fauci (right) speak during their Sunday visit to Abyssinian Baptist Church. (United Way of New York City) Nearly 5,500 people had gotten vaccinated at Abyssinian through the end of April, according to the First Lady's office. The church has hosted more than 40 vaccine clinics this year. Inside the clinic, Biden patted the back of a 14-year-old who had signed up to get his shot. "Do you want to hold my hand?" Biden asked. (The boy declined, setting off laughter.) The final patient, meanwhile, was Annette Gausney, born in 1929. After a church official introduced her to the First Lady, Gausney replied, "Oh! I'm 92." Fauci, who grew up in Brooklyn, told reporters it was "a great pleasure" to be at Abyssinian, "a historic place" he has known since childhood. "People in this community trust this church, and trust the people in the church," he said. Harlem has lagged behind some other neighborhoods during the city's vaccine rollout. As of Monday, Harlem's vaccine rates ranged between 38 percent and 50 percent between its eight ZIP codes — trailing some more affluent, nearby neighborhoods like the Upper East Side, where upwards of 80 percent of people have gotten a vaccine dose in some areas.