By Kristy Warren
Still need your COVID-19 vaccine? Join Laurel Health on September 22nd from 11 am - 3 pm for a special health event featuring FREE health screenings, education, COVID-19 vaccines, and help with insurance enrollment at the YMCA in Mansfield, PA, located at 40 Besanceney Drive. The Laurel Health Centers are partnering with the Tioga County YMCA and the YMCA Center for Healthy Living to answer your health questions and offer Moderna COVID-19 vaccines at the event.
The event is part of the YMCA's 67-county health equity tour. Experts will be available to answer your questions about COVID-19, dental health, tobacco / vape cessation, healthy eating, exercise programs, health insurance enrollment, and senior support services.
If you can't attend this outreach event, you can still quickly and easily schedule your COVID-19 vaccine for free with Laurel Health. We offer COVID-19 vaccine at all seven Laurel Health Center sites throughout Tioga and Bradford Counties. To schedule your shot, simply call 1-833-LAURELHC (1-833-528-7354) and select the clinic location of your choice or click here to visit our contact page.
The vaccines are safe, effective, and the key to ending the pandemic. When a large enough portion of any population is immunized against a deadly virus, it becomes much more difficult for that virus to spread, sicken, kill, or develop dangerous new strains. By contrast, in a largely unvaccinated population, viruses can quickly mutate to become more contagious and dangerous. We've watched this happen firsthand with Coronavirus COVID-19 over the past year and a half with the development of the UK, South African, Brazil, Delta, and Mu variants.
The longer COVID-19 can mutate in a largely unvaccinated population, the more we risk a strain developing that the vaccines no longer protect against. This would mean returning to square one with more intensive mitigation measures like lockdowns and widespread quarantines. It would lead to even more preventable deaths, surges in critically ill patients, overwhelmed healthcare clinics / hospitals, more school and business closures, soaring health costs for health systems and patients, and increased healthcare staff burnout, leaving facilities understaffed and unable to care for patients. No one wants to lose our hardwon progress. Please protect yourself, your friends, your family, and your community by getting vaccinated as soon as you're able to do so.
Moderna and Janssen are currently approved for anyone 18 and up; Pfizer is currently approved for anyone 12 and up.
Misinformation and fearmongering has caused an epidemic of vaccine hesistancy that is costing lives. The vaccines were studied and tested intensely to assure their safety before they were approved for use. They have been safely given to millions of people across the world, and they have been proven to greatly reduce your risk of catching COVID-19 and experiencing severe symptoms, hospitalization, or death. Be skeptical of any vaccine information you see shared on social media and look instead to your family doctor and other official health sources for the latest accurate information like the PA Department of Health and the Centers for Disease Control (CDC).
If you have any questions about the COVID-19 vaccine or how it works, please call your doctor to discuss or click here visit our COVID-19 resources page for accurate, trustworthy information.
To schedule your COVID-19 vaccine, simply call 1-833-LAURELHC (1-833-528-7354) and select the clinic location of your choice or click here to visit our contact page.