“This one is quieter. All of our vaccinators know this population. We offer housing to those who need it,” said Dr. Wendy Ross, who is the director of the Jefferson Health Center for Autism and Neurodiversity.
The waiting room had only two chairs and the staff had spinning machines, headphones and sunglasses on hand.
The clinic made about 50 shots against Johnson & Johnson in more than six hours.
The providers in charge of it state that this rate of slowdown is what their patients with IDD, intellectual or developmental disabilities need.
“Not everyone tolerates large crowds and lines, and I think the population we serve in particular has a high risk of contracting and dying from COVID,” Ross said.
Ross and his team conducted a study of more than 64 million cases of COVID-19 and found that patients with IDD were nearly six times more likely to die from the virus, the second highest risk factor. of age.
“A lot of people we know who belong to this category don’t know how to protect themselves, or can’t tolerate it. I don’t like to tolerate that,” said Stanley Jaskiewicz, who took his son to the clinic. “It didn’t fit into any of the categories. We didn’t know when or where.”
Batisha Andrews is a patient of Jefferson, and so is his brother Shawn.
They both say they appreciate this clinic and that it’s just a shot.
“I feel really good that I was finally able to get the vaccine,” he said.
Following Jefferson’s study, 11 states, including Pennsylvania, changed the vaccine launch to include patients with IDD.
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