ORLANDO, Fla. – The push to get the community vaccinated isn’t over yet.
President Joe Biden set a goal to have 70% of all Americans vaccinated by July 4 but as of now, that number sits at about 50%.
News 6 knows countless viewers still have questions about the COVID-19 vaccine and whether it’s right for them, so on Friday, June 4, we hosted another Vaccine Day event.
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The coverage kicked off at 5 a.m. when the first phone bank of the day began. From then until 10 a.m., doctors and providers from AdventHealth were available to address concerns. Later in the day, a second phone bank was hosted from 4 p.m. to 7:30 p.m.
The number to call was 888-436-6665 and more than 400 calls were answered.
A live chat also took place during those phone bank hours in the comments section at the bottom of this article and on the News 6 Facebook page.
News 6′s newscasts on June 4 featured stories aimed at informing viewers about the vaccine and answering some of the most common questions.
Live Q&A’s and other chats with our anchors and reporters were also posted on the News 6 Facebook page.
This event marked News 6′s second Vaccine Day and third phone bank within the past month.
The first Vaccine Day, hosted May 7, tackled stories proving the COVID-19 vaccine won’t affect fertility, highlighting why doctors are urging parents to get their children vaccinated, providing data on who’s been inoculated and showcasing the struggles of reaching herd immunity.
We also heard the story of Cape Canaveral Hospital’s first COVID-19 patient. After spending 29 days in a medically-induced coma, that man returned to thank the doctors and nurses he credits for saving his life.
More than 700 people called in that day to have their questions answered by Dr. Tim Hendrix and his team during the three-hour phone bank.
“We really have gotten great results tonight in getting the message out about the vaccine, making people comfortable and trying to get this pandemic under control because unless we get more people vaccinated this is not going to get over really soon,” Hendrix said on May 7.
One of the most common questions he and his team heard during that phone bank and the one on May 21 was where to go to get a vaccine.
For information on vaccination locations, you can click here for a county-by-county breakdown. You can also enter your ZIP code in the White House vaccine locator, available here. To get a list of locations near you, text your ZIP code to 438829.
Doses are also now available at Centra Care, information on how to sign up is available here.