Brookdale’s director of strategic policy initiatives, christian gonzález-rivera, testified via Zoom before the New York City Council Committees on Health, Aging, and Technology, which held a joint hearing on February 17, 2021, on COVID-19 and older adults, with a focus on how to reach homebound New Yorkers who need a vaccine.
The testimony laid out four-point plan to get homebound older New Yorkers vaccinated against COVID-19.
First, vaccine distribution should happen in senior housing buildings, senior centers, and other places where older New Yorkers congregate and live. Second, the city should use its resources to encourage medical providers to reach out to their patients about the vaccine and to help them do so. Third, the city should use existing, trusted delivery infrastructure–like Meals on Wheels and home health aides—to deliver the vaccine. Fourth, the city should set up a hotline that caretakers—informal or paid—can use to summon a vaccinator to serve the adults under their care.
