Mount Sinai continues offering vaccines

Mount Sinai South Nassau’s Vaxmobile offered Town of Hempstead residents flu and Covid vaccines Tuesday. They were administered at the Freeport Memorial Library, 158 Merrick Rd.

The Vaxmobile has been operating since March 2021, visiting communities such as Long Beach, Elmont, Uniondale, Hempstead, Freeport, Westbury, and Baldwin to bring more than 15,000 Covid vaccines directly to residents. It now offers vaccines and a wide array of other community health screenings to everyone from two years of age and older at community centers, senior centers, churches, high schools, firehouses, and local colleges.

The Town of Hempstead first funded the Vaxmobile in January 2021 with $695,042 from the federal CARES Act through the Town of Hempstead. Funding was continued into 2024.

Mount Sinai South Nassau combated the pandemic by administering the first doses of the Covid vaccine to 5 to 11-year-olds in front of Long Beach City Hall in early November 2021. MSSN arrived in the Vaxmobile in the early afternoon to administer 10 vaccines that day.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recently approved the updated Covid vaccines from Pfizer and Moderna that target currently circulating variants and provide better protection against serious illness. The CDC voted last month to recommend the updated vaccines for everyone six months and older.

The CDC advises that most people get one dose of the new vaccine, at least two months after their most recent vaccine dose. People who are immunocompromised, and parents of young children, should consult their doctor for recommended dosing. In partnership with the Town of Hempstead, the Vaxmobile is also offering a flu shot program for seniors and younger adults. All versions of the flu vaccine for the 2023-2024 season are designed to protect against four different flu viruses.  The vaccine is available to all individuals six months and older.