Lynn Mayor Urges Residents to Get Vaccinated

LYNN — City officials and local health experts urged residents to get vaccinated Wednesday night during a virtual COVID-19 town hall, saying that the benefits outweigh the risks. The town hall featured a roundtable discussion — moderated by Lynn Community Television’s Mukala Kabongo — that included Mayor Thomas M. McGee, Public Health Director Michele Desmarais, Salem Hospital doctors Miriam Neuman and Barbara Lambl, and Dr. Hanna Haptu and family nurse practitioner Marita Gove of Lynn Community Health Center. McGee kicked off the event by stressing the importance of getting the COVID-19 vaccine to contribute to obtaining herd immunity, an ever-changing target that health experts believe will lead to a return to some type of normalcy. McGee said the Lynn Tech vaccination site is open to all Massachuestts residents and is now servicing walk-ins as well. “We’ve had great success thus far with our vaccination efforts with so many people coming together to make it work,” McGee said. According to McGee, state data shows that, as of April 29, 31,381 Lynn residents are fully vaccinated and 13,282 are partially vaccinated. He said, overall, about 44 percent of the Lynn population has received their first dose. Although the number of vaccinations continues to increase, McGee said they are still seeing positive cases of COVID-19 in the community. Dr. Neuman, Salem Hospital’s chair of radiology, encouraged people to get tested and to get the vaccine, saying the vaccines are up to 95 percent effective. She said that although the effectiveness is not 100 percent, the vaccine will prevent hospitalization and death, leaving people with mild symptoms if infected. ...