By Dimtrije Martinovic
(Dimitrije is a journalist with the Focus Media Arts Centre, funded by the Government of Canada through the Local Journalism Initiative)

With the emergence of the new COVID-19 variant Omicron residents of Regent Park along with community organizations have mobilised to confront the specter of this new challenge. Rallying around getting the word out about where to go and what to do has always been the mainstay of Regent Parkers sense of community – no matter the issue – Regent Park people tend to look out for one another.

In this short video, Lamisa Ahmed, a youth ambassador with the Vaccine Engagement Regent Park, and Murshida Samsun Mueen, community ambassador with Regent Park Community Health Centre, join Walied Kjolagli Ali, a community vaccine educator to unpack the plethora of new and old phenomena that now crowd the corona virus landscape.

With so much information competing with one’s attention, no one can be faulted for losing sight of even the most fundamental concerns, and so it is no surprise that Walied asked Lamisa to once more remind people, “why take the vaccine, what’s so important about the vaccine?”

“The number one reason,“ replied Lamisa is, “ for protection, for yourself, for those around you, and to reduce the spread of COVID-19. And it is the MNRA vaccines Moderna and Pfizer that are the recommended vaccines to get.”

The next question asked by Walied was to Murshida, “why get the booster?” Murshida responded by saying that the booster is essentially a way of extending the immune resistance offered by the first and second shots, adding that the eligibility for booster shot is 3 months after the second dose. Full vaccine efficacy, Murshida added, was two weeks after the second shot.

Addressing the matter of mixing and matching vaccine brands, Lamisa affirmed that there should be no hesitancy when considering your next vaccine shots.  Both Moderna and Pfizer have been proven in clinical trials to be effective with Moderna being 94% effective and Pfizer 95% effective.

Vaccinations are available at the Regent Park Community Health Centre, located at 40 Oak Street:

Mon 2:30pm – 8:00pm
Tue   2:45PM – 8:00pm
Fri     8:30am – 8:00pm
Sat    8:30am – 12noon

In Regent Park, where the recognition of the existence of systemic barriers to access to housing, education, employment, medical Health and Mental Health is high, community ambassadors who
are also residents and reflect the racial and ethnic make-up of the community, becomes even more important in presenting knowledge and support to communities who may have an underlying mistrust for institutionally generated interventions.