Event in Town n Country features, Free Testing, free Vaccinations and expert panel discussion.

Hillsborough County— January 10, 2022 — On Saturday January 15 from 10:00 am until 2:00pm, “Get the Facts! Get Tested and Vaxxed!”, organized by Advocates Gary Stein, MPH and his wife, Monique Zimmerman, Exec. Director of Blind leading the Blind with help from Walter Smith II, moderator of the Sunday forum on WMNF, Freddie Barton of Hillsborough Safe & Sound, the Hillsborough County Health Department, and others.

The event includes free testing and free vaccinations for all ages and vaccination status and includes a Town Hall forum at noon to dispel misinformation and inform the public on the virus, the disease and the vaccines. Expert speakers include Dr. Kevin Sneed, Dean of the College of Pharmacy at USF Health, Dr. Kelly King, a medical director and hospitalist and Commissioner of Agriculture and Consumer services, Nikki Fried, and guest appearances by local and state elected officials, faith leaders, and more.

Hillsborough County, along with Florida and the nation are entering into the third year of these dual pandemics, the SARS COV-2 virus, Covid-19 and a pandemic of misinformation that had hampered national, state and local public health efforts to reduce the impact and stop the virus and its disease. After waiting nearly a year for the development and distribution of a vaccine, misinformation coming from disinformation campaigns have caused confusion, fear and vaccine hesitancy that have sustained the pandemic and allowed for the development of variants that continue to cause new cases of COVID, hospitalizations that have overwhelmed our healthcare system, and almost 838,000 deaths nationwide.

In Hillsborough County, that has led to only 70% of the 1.7M residents now having only a single dose of the vaccine, only 59% being fully vaccinated with two doses and only 31.2% getting the booster shot that so many need to beat this virus.[1] The unvaccinated are 5 times more likely to get infected 10 times more likely to be hospitalized and 10.3 times more likely to die from COVID.[2] It has also been shown that minorities are more likely to be vaccine hesitant, as well as more vulnerable to the disease.

The event is open to the public. Health-related organizations are welcome to contact us a (513)305-8280 or gsteinmph@me.com for a booth spot at the event. Voluntary contributions will be gladly accepted.

[1] Covid.cdc.gov

[2] Cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/70/wr/mm7037, Morbidity and Mortality Report