By Dimitrije Martinovic
Dimitrije is a staff with FOCUS MEDIA ARTS CENTRE.

Radio Regent aired the first its series of the Downtown East Vaccine Radio programs, a collaboration with the Regent Park Community Health Centre (RPCHC). Hosted by Murshida S Mueen, a Community Ambassador with Regent Park Social Development Plan (SDP), she interviewed Abhishek Saxena, Pandemic Program Manager, Regent Park Community Health Centre (RPCHC).

The Regent Park Community Health Centre is located at 465 Dundas Street East, and was established in 1973. The health centre provides the community with wide range of “integrated high-quality prImary health care services, including health promotion services and community capacity building. Our priority is to reduce the health inequities experienced by low-income, immigrant, refugee, non-status, marginally-housed, and homeless populations.” (https://regentparkchc.org/about/)

Abhishek Saxena began by summarizing once again where we are now in terms of testing (rapid antigen test and Polymerase chain reaction test PCR), isolation, and stressing that vaccination is still the most direct method of controlling the spread of the virus. Following this brief summary of the current preventative measures Abhishek delved into some of the underlying benefits regarding vaccines and the booster, as well as how the vaccine functions in response the virus.

With the spectre of Covid-19 still looming large as we head into the third year, Abhishek surveyed many issues remain uppermost in the minds of those who have had covid, recovered, and then find themselves dealing with lingering side effects called Post-Covid 19 condition, or long covid. The common symptoms with long covid are fatigue, shortness of breath, anxiety, depression, difficulty thinking or concentrating, all together there are as many as 100 symptoms associated with long covid. Unfortunately, at this point there are no measures save masks and vaccines that can be taken to avoid long covid.

So much of  the discourse on covid has centred on the adult population, with children and youth in general receiving less attention, perhaps because we assume that these groups have a higher immunity. “How important are the vaccines for children and young people,” asked Murshida?  Abhishek responded by saying that children are just as important to be vaccinated. Children live in families with parents, and sometimes grandparents who may be at higher risks of having more serious affects if infected.  

Finally,  Abhishek reiterated the position held by most medical institutions: “Vaccines do work, the rate of hospitalizations is down as is the rate of mortality, immunity is increasing, overall case counts are going down, and we still do recommend wearing masks, get vaccinated, and practice social distancing where possible.”

For Regent Park residents vaccinations are available through the Regent Park Community Health Centre at 40 Oak Street (the Fred Victor building), the hours of operation during July – Aug 2022 are Saturdays 9:30am – 12:30pm.