Hampton University plans to join the state’s COVID-19 vaccination efforts with a new mobile vaccination and testing unit.
The vehicle, a custom-built RV with pharmacy-grade freezers capable of storing vaccines, was unveiled at a news conference on campus Wednesday. University leaders said it’s critical for the historically Black school to lend its weight to the fight against a disease that’s disproportionately affected African Americans.
“Hampton is trusted,” said Michelle Penn-Marshall, vice president for research and associate provost at the event. “We’re coming to a community near you to provide the services that you need, and we look forward to working with you.”
Mobile clinics like Hampton’s are one of the next fronts in the state’s vaccine efforts. Gov. Ralph Northam announced Wednesday that the state is partnering with Walmart to start some mobile clinics aimed at boosting vaccination rates in low-income and minority communities.
So far, many of the vaccines administered on the Peninsula have been through hospital systems and at mass vaccination clinics at Christopher Newport University and the Hampton Roads Convention Center.
University leaders have tied Black Virginian’s mistrust of vaccination efforts to centuries of discrimination in health care. They specifically cited the infamous Tuskegee Syphilis Study, when researchers left Black men in Alabama with syphilis untreated to see how the disease progressed when untreated.
In December, university President William Harvey, Mayor Donnie Tuck and schools Superintendent Jeffery Smith got their first Pfizer vaccinations in front of cameras at Sentara CarePlex to show their trust in the vaccine.
Meanwhile, the pandemic also has disproportionately affected people of color. Bill Thomas, associate vice president for governmental relations, cited federal data that shows the life expectancy of Black men decreased by three years in the first six months of 2020. For white men, it decreased by less than a year.
“COVID-19 is a pandemic. It’s impacting everyone,” Thomas said. “But most importantly, it’s impacting men that look like me.”
In addition to the mobile clinic, the university is partnering with the neighboring VA Medical Center to offer vaccines to veterans and their caregivers at the university’s Convocation Center. Those will start March 8.
Thomas said in a news release announcing the clinic that the university also had offered itself up as a mass vaccination site to the state but didn’t hear back from the state.
The university used some of the funds it’s gotten from a number of large donations this year to help pay for the vehicle. Thanks to a donation from scientific manufacturer Thermo-Fisher Scientific, the university also has started its own testing lab on campus.
“We got support; external support, industry support. But we also need support from everyone,” Thomas said. “We’re saving lives — that’s Dr. Harvey’s mantra, ‘Save lives. Ease human suffering, but save lives.’ And we’re doing it in a whole lot of instances.”
The university is still working out dates and sites for the mobile clinic. To pre-register for a vaccination at one of Virginia’s vaccinations sites, go to vaccinate.virginia.gov. If you have questions, call the state’s vaccine hotline at 877-829-4682 or 877-VAX-IN-VA.
Correction: A previous version of this story incorrectly characterized the Tuskegee syphilis study. Some me who had syphilis already were left untreated as part of the study.
