A couple months ago, a wild idea began floating around Massachusetts.
What if a group of volunteers could help with all aspects of vaccination, from scheduling to wellness checks to parking to helping administer the doses themselves.
Now, thousands of these volunteers of all ages and backgrounds are making this idea a reality as part of the newly formed Vaccine Corps.
UMass Medical School Chancellor Dr. Michael Collins is the brains behind the concept. He said volunteers are working on-site at vaccine clinics and mobile units. The group worked with the Worcester Board of Health to inoculate people experiencing homelessness in the city. The volunteers are also administering the vaccine to people who are homebound.
Collins said that getting shots into people's arms goes beyond administering doses.
"I think there's going to be a whole other responsibility, which I think our folks are very well poised for, and that is the education that's going to be necessary to encourage people to come and get the vaccine," Collins said. "We've done a number of those sessions where our faculty of color have done Zoom calls with various community groups to talk about the importance of getting the vaccine and being present to answer questions and to give thoughtful responses to the folks who need to have vaccines. So I think in many different phases of this we've got lots of work to do. Our expectation is that we will be going strong — hopefully we get where we need to be by the Fourth of July. But if it takes longer than that, we're prepared to do that."
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