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Lynn Community Health Center In the News

This is a Precious but Messy Moment

https://www.itemlive.com/2021/01/18/lynn-community-health-center-ceo-this-is-a-precious-but-messy-moment/

Phase two of the state's coronavirus vaccine rollout begins Monday morning, with patients 75 and older first in line to receive their shots at vaccination sites throughout the state.

One of those sites is the Lynn Community Health Center, which sits in a hot spot where almost one in six residents have tested positive for the coronavirus.

WBUR's Morning Edition host Bob Oakes was joined by CEO and family physician Dr. Kiame Mahaniah to discuss.

https://www.wbur.org/commonhealth/2021/02/01/lynn-community-health-center-vaccine-phase-two

Lynn is a coronavirus hot spot. Roughly one in six residents has tested positive. So Dr. Elizabeth Quinn was fuming this week as she told frail patients, 75 years and older, that they might have to wait for shots even though hospitals nearby were vaccinating young, back office employees.

Knowing that there is vaccine in our community that could be helping to protect these extremely vulnerable patients but is being used not in that most strategic way is infuriating," says Quinn, who practices family medicine at the Lynn Community Health Center. "And it's demoralizing."

...

https://www.wbur.org/commonhealth/2021/01/29/some-community-health-centers-key-partners-in-vaccine-rollout-dont-have-any

To the editor:   If I may, I would like to take a moment to offer congratulations and admiration to both the organizers, healthcare professionals and volunteers who organized and administered the COVID-19 vaccination protocol at Neptune Boulevard on Monday, Feb. 1. When appointment time arrived on a blustery New England day, I walked the entranceway full of apprehension of what was ahead only to be greeted by a friendly, reassuring Lynn firefighter who asked the standard C-19 health questions. After taking my temperature, I proceeded to the next stop in the cavernous Lynn Tech gymnasium where table stations were set up and manned by volunteers and nurses for assistance if needed in filling out required forms. After completing each and before leaving for the next station, I was asked if I had any questions or needed any assistance. It was this cooperative and professional manner that each person displayed that so impressed me. ...

https://www.itemlive.com/2021/02/03/thank-you-lynn-community-health-center/

Restoring Trust to Save Lives

https://www.bostonglobe.com/2021/02/03/metro/restoring-trust-save-lives/

LYNN — A COVID-19 vaccination site will open at the Lynn Tech Field House on Monday. Hosted through a partnership between the Lynn Community Health Center (LCHC), Lynn Department of Public Health (DPH), and Nahant Department of Public Health, the site will be open to those who live or work in Lynn and Nahant, or are patients of Lynn Community Health Center, and are eligible to receive the vaccine based on the state’s vaccination plan. “I urge everyone who is eligible to get the COVID-19 vaccine. After the long year we’ve had, there is light at the end of the tunnel,” said Lynn Public Health Director Michele Desmarais. “This rollout process continues to evolve with many challenges, including vaccination supply constraints, but our partnership’s commitment is to do our part to vaccinate our community to the best of our ability within those constraints.” Due to high demand and constrained vaccine supply, health officials say COVID-19 vaccination appointments are limited at this time, but more appointments will be added on a rolling basis based on supply from the federal government. Mayor Thomas M. McGee’s office stated that the city and LCHC are currently working to establish a call-in center where residents can also make appointments by phone for the Lynn Tech site. “As we move through the stages of the state vaccination plan, the Lynn Department of Public Health and my office will work to do everything we can to make information related to the COVID-19 vaccine as available as possible,” McGee said. “Our team is working to enact a plan that includes a robust public information campaign to notify eligible populations so that they may be vaccinated as quickly as possible.” ...

https://www.itemlive.com/2021/01/29/new-vaccination-site-opens-in-lynn/

LYNN — The shot took less than five seconds to administer, but it will save Anna Perez from months of stress and worry. Perez, a dentist at the Lynn Community Health Center, was the first person in Lynn to receive the new Moderna vaccine, which has been shown to be 94 percent effective at preventing COVID-19. “You know, I didn’t feel a thing,” she said. “But my arm feels very good, and I feel comfortable. I didn’t know I was going to be the first person. I have no words to say how much I appreciate the opportunity.” The two-dose Moderna vaccine was authorized for use by the United States last Friday, after it was shown to be effective at preventing the virus in a study of 30,000 volunteers aged 18 and older. It also strongly protected older adults, who are most vulnerable. It differs from the Pfizer vaccine which was also recently released in that it doesn’t need to be stored at ultra-frozen temperatures. “We just decided that Pfizer was too complicated,” said Kiame Mahaniah, the LCHC Chief Executive Officer. “The Moderna vaccine was more user-friendly.” LCHC received its first round of vaccines Tuesday. Geoff Pechinsky, the Chief Medical Officer at LCHC, was hopeful that the vaccine could help them continue to assist the local hospitals in dealing with the virus. “I’m optimistic,” said Pechinsky. “We’ve all been very tired and worried the last nine months. “ ...

https://www.itemlive.com/2020/12/23/first-moderna-vaccines-administered-at-lynn-community-health-center/

LYNN — Residents who participated in the city of Lynn’s first COVID-19 “Tele-Town Hall” on Tuesday night raised questions surrounding how often they should get tested, the accuracy of test results, and whether people become immune, or if they’re susceptible to reinfection. As health experts continue to be concerned with the risk of a “double viral infection” during the upcoming flu season, the city’s public health director Michele Desmarais, Mayor Thomas M. McGee, and a panel of three local doctors also urged Lynn residents to get a flu vaccine this year. “The flu vaccine is extremely safe,” said Dr. Mitchell Rein, chief medical officer of North Shore Medical Center, who acknowledged that some individuals are concerned about vaccinations in general. “It really is the best way to prevent the flu. This year it is exceptionally important we do everything we can to keep the risk of flu at a minimum. The risk of having both COVID and flu at the same time could be devastating for (people).” ...

https://www.itemlive.com/2020/10/06/lynn-town-hall-talks-covid/

Lynn emerges as new center for coronavirus

https://www.bostonglobe.com/2020/08/24/nation/lynn-emerges-new-center-coronavirus-state/

I took the plunge Sunday. That doesn’t necessarily mean what it did 43 years ago, when I took the ultimate plunge and got married. But these days, the expression can mean any one of a number of things. In this case, after five months of talking about it, I finally agreed to take a COVID test. It wasn’t merely because I had nothing better to do. I took it because someone I’d come in contact with several times over the last month felt sick enough over the weekend to get one. I kind of wanted to avoid the Christmas Rush, so to speak, and get one before I absolutely had to for official “quarantine” purposes, or before I felt too sick to drag myself down to the health center. As for the first part of the last paragraph, I picked a time to get one — Sunday afternoon from 1-4 p.m. in the tents on Buffum Street in Lynn — when I might as well have waited until the Christmas Rush. It took almost 2 ½ hours from the time I stepped into the line until I walked out of there. And as for the second, as I write this, I feel fine. The test, as I said, was purely cautionary. There was more than enough time to make a couple of casual observations. First, if you’re getting tested for a virus that has killed 160,000 of your fellow Americans, then you’d darn well better put a mask on. I’m proud of my fellow Lynners, because everyone in that line, from little kids on up, wore masks. Second, the worst part of queueing up for anything is to watch people who try to jump the line. You see this so often at the store when people leave their carts in the line so that they can take another quick run to get the one item they “forgot” to buy. Or perhaps they go into the gas station facing the wrong way rather than wait their turns. Or perhaps you’re waiting for the oncoming traffic to take a left into the Dunkin Donuts drive-thru line only to have two cars coming the other way sneak in there rather than allow you in. Maddening.   ...

https://www.itemlive.com/2020/08/10/steve-krause-thoughts-while-waiting-for-a-covid-test/

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