BALTIMORE — His story is familiar.
Ashish Kejriwal of Ellicott City works in a health-related field and needed to get the vaccine and now, he’s found one… with a little help.
“Actually, my wife booked the appointment for me,” Kejriwal told us. “You know I have a pre-existing condition.”
A week ago today, the mass vaccination site at M&T Bank Stadium opened offering 250 shots, but a delivery of the new Johnson & Johnson vaccine has allowed them to ramp up.
“We’re doing 2,000 today and then over the next week, we’ll be doing about 2,400 a day and then a week from today, we plan to go up to 4,000,” said Dr. Jason Marx of University of Maryland Medicine.
While much has been said about Pfizer and Moderna shots being more effective than Johnson & Johnson’s, it is a one-shot vaccine with a track record of stopping some variants while the others may not.
Marx, who heads up the operation at the stadium, says all of them can prevent hospitalizations and even death.
“Please don’t be hesitant. If you have access to a vaccine, don’t worry about which vaccine it is. Just take the vaccine,” said Marx. “The best vaccine is the one that you can get.”
And all of them carry the promise of ultimately helping us return to normal after a year of lock downs, shut-ins and other restrictions.
“The first thing that comes to mind in our immediate family is the kids are not having the outdoor activities,” said Kejriwal. “We can’t take them anywhere, and we as a family are not going on vacations. We haven’t been on any vacations so far so this summer, we are looking forward for those activities.”
Dr. Marx tells us that many of the online appointments go pretty quickly, but there’s also a separate telephone number. That’s 1-855-MDGOVax.
At this time, all slots have been filled.
