Courtesy Saratoga County Chamber (2021)
About 180,000 people need to get the coronavirus vaccine in Saratoga County before the governor would consider the county safe enough to open the economy fully.
The reality is that 13,000 to 14,000 residents of the county have already gotten the vaccine.
You could see this as a glass half-empty or you could be Todd Shimkus, the president of the Saratoga County Chamber of Commerce.
He and Saratoga Hospital have teamed up with a new hashtag: #IGotTheShot, featured on posters and stickers.
“It’s meant to celebrate the people who choose to get it when they’re invited to,” Shimkus said. “So I’m going to celebrate the first 13,000.”
The more who get the shot, the more likely restaurants and bars will reopen. The more likely the governor will lessen the burden on businesses.
If people decide not to get the vaccine, the virus will continue and and “We’re not reopening our economy,” Shimkus said.
Access to the vaccine in Saratoga has been limited. In the county so far, the vaccine has gone mainly to health care workers and first responders, but others have been driving to Plattsburgh, Utica and Albany where appointments for the vaccination are available.
And Shimkus does not see this as a bad decision on their part. The more people who get the vaccine, the better.
As part of the #IGotTheShot promotion, organizations whose employees are eligible for vaccines will receive posters and stickers to hang and share so that people who stop in will see and feel safe. So far, the Chamber is distributing the items to local dentists, chiropractors, opticians, EMTs and other first-responders, the release says.
Shimkus got the idea after reading about a similar effort in Italy, a nation hard hit by the pandemic. Italy used a primrose motif to brighten up a vaccination pavilion.
The Chamber is using it, too, as a message that spring is near.
“This campaign is yet another way that our healthcare workers are on the front line of the fight against COVID-19—this time by setting an example that can save lives,” Angelo Calbone, Saratoga Hospital president and CEO, said in a statement.
“Our healthcare workers have led the way in this fight the entire time. We should be thrilled that they got the vaccine,” Shimkus said.
His reasoning is that they are safe. They do not have to worry, and people around them do not need to worry.
To open the county, 70 to 90% of the population, or about 180,000 people, need the vaccine, Shimkus said, “That’s what gets us back to meeting in person again.”