BUFFALO, N.Y. — Dr. Raul Vazquez is going above and beyond to make sure people, especially young people are vaccinated. He is going to raffle off a 2021 Tesla.
He has been holding pop-up vaccine clinics. On Tuesday, there were two inside of high schools in the City of Buffalo. The focus is young people who have expressed hesitancy about getting the COVID-19 vaccine.
A new Tesla, he hopes will trigger them to get the vaccine.
In order to enter the raffle, you must have both shots. "Then you'll get a ticket," said Dr. Vazquez. "You come in with a parent, you get the shot, you get a ticket, bring a kid, they get a ticket and the odds go up. We have to try whatever we can because hesitancy is really bad."
"We've got to do what it takes to get our young ones vaccinated," said Dr. Dennis Kuo, a medical professional with the Buffalo Public Schools.
Phillip Butler is in his early 20's and came to Hutch Tech to get vaccinated at the pop-up clinic. He admitted, "A lot of us are frightened for several different reasons. What happened previously years ago, but now understanding that the technology is up to date, we have people experienced, it is something that is going to help our community."
He was eager to get the shot. "I'm a strong advocate for the vaccine I believe it will save lives and keep our community safe in the long run."
It's an important message because Dr. Vazquez said those people in the 20-40 age range are going to be the ones hardest hit.
"This (the vaccine) is our ticket to normalcy," said Dr. Kuo. "The vaccine is safe, the vaccine works we are seeing really good results. We are in the middle of a spike of COVID in Buffalo, but numbers are coming down because we're vaccinating more people everyday."