Nassau County Legislators Arnold W. Drucker (D - Plainview) and Debra Mulé (D - Freeport) are encouraging residents who are seeking the monkeypox vaccine to utilize a newly established County web portal to access appointments.
This comes nearly two weeks after Legislators Drucker, Mulé and their Minority Caucus colleagues urged Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman to dramatically increase Nassau’s outreach and efforts to contain the spread of the virus, which was declared a public health emergency of international concern by the World Health Organization.
Individuals who visit https://www.nassaucountyny.gov/5433/Monkeypox-Vaccine-Info will be provided with a link to Northwell Health’s website, where they can schedule appointments at their 1 Marcus Avenue vaccination pod in New Hyde Park.
The website also contains basic information about scheduling an appointment at Nassau University Medical Center in East Meadow. Individuals seeking to schedule an appointment at NUMC can call 516-486-6862, and then press 1, 1, and 9 to leave a voicemail which will be returned by NUMC staff to schedule.
“While this is a small step in the right direction, it is no substitute for the type of direct outreach that is necessary to reach the communities that have been most impacted by the spread of monkeypox,” Legislators Drucker and Mulé said. “It is long past time for Nassau County to join forces with trusted leaders in the LGBTQ+ community for the purpose of beginning an aggressive public information campaign that will raise awareness, calm fears and combat stigma associated with this pressing public health concern.”
New York State Department of Health statistics show that New York State has 900 confirmed case of monkeypox, with 5 of those in Nassau County, 13 in Suffolk County, and the majority (839) in New York City.