Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett on Thursday continued to urge people to be vaccinated for COVID-19 — even as FEMA announced last week it will close its mass vaccination site downtown on May 28 because demand is waning. Barrett said now is not the time to give up.
“I don’t want to take my foot off the accelerator when it comes to vaccinations. I am very much of the mindset, based on public health, that the more people who have the vaccinations, the healthier our community will be and the faster we will be able to return to life as normal,” he said.
Despite the impending closing of the Wisconsin Center, Barrett said the city will continue to administer vaccines at the Northwest and Southside Health Centers. He said he stopped by the Southside Center on Thursday morning, and was pleased to see a steady stream of people getting vaccinated.
In addition, Barrett said the city hopes to continue with mobile vaccination sites in the neighborhoods. “We’re taking the vaccines to the people and we’re doing that because we know that it’s important to reach people where they are and that’s something we’re very much committed to,” he said.
Barrett said vaccines will be administered at the Mexican Consulate on Milwaukee’s east side Friday. The immigrant rights group Voces de la Frontera will facilitate a vaccine clinic at its office on the south side on Saturday. And the Milwaukee Bucks will host a clinic ahead of the game against Brooklyn Nets on Sunday at the Fiserv Forum.
Dr. Ben Weston, of the Medical College of Wisconsin, said he often asks patients whether they’ve received the vaccine. Some say they are concerned about long-term side effects and are wary of being vaccinated. Weston insisted the vaccines are safe.
“The data from the studies of tens of thousands of people who went through the trials and the accumulating information from the more than 140 million people in the United States who’ve received the vaccine is overwhelming,” Weston said.
Weston said it’s easier than ever to get a vaccine right now in Milwaukee and referred people to healthymke.com to find a vaccination site close to home.
