‘I FEEL AT HOME HERE’
First Presbyterian Church holds vaccine clinic, urging faith communities to help lead way
For Ethel and Maurice Trimmer, First Presbyterian Church of Santa Fe seemed like a comfortable place to get their COVID19 boosters. Ethel Trimmer, 100, has been a member of the downtown church since 1954, when she moved to the city from New York. She and her husband arrived at First Presbyterian on Monday afternoon for what church officials envision as one of a series of vaccination clinics in Santa Fe hosted by a faith community in collaboration with the New Mexico Department of Health.
“I feel at home here,” Ethel Trimmer said.
The Trimmers were among about 160 people who showed up to get a shot. The Rev. Andrew Black, who helped organize the event, said most had registered for inoculations, but many were walk-ins. Several — maybe as many as 10 — received their first dose of the vaccine, he added.
Black hopes Monday’s clinic at First Presbyterian will encourage other congregations to consider hosting vaccination events. “I think it’s really important that spiritual leaders and faith leaders start to be really strong leaders on this issue,” he said.
The event came as the Department of Health reported 3,039 new cases of COVID-19 in the state and 29 more deaths between Christmas Eve and Monday. Cases appear to be dipping in New Mexico as the pandemic spikes across the nation and worldwide, fueled by the omicron variant. Health officials have said vaccines and face masks are the best defenses against the virus — or a severe case of the illness — and have been urging residents to get their shots, including the third dose, or booster.
Data shows New Mexico is far ahead of many others in the nation when it comes to rolling out vaccines.
More than 75 percent of adults in the state are fully vaccinated and nearly 34 percent have received a booster, compared with about 62 percent of vaccinated adults nationwide and a quarter who have gotten boosters.
More than 15 percent of New Mexico children ages 5 to 11 and 57 percent of kids 12 to 17 are fully vaccinated.
Ethel Trimmer said she caught a so-called breakthrough case of COVID-19 in early September. She didn’t feel any symptoms.
“A caregiver said I didn’t look well,” she recalled as she sat in a pew at First Presbyterian.
Doctors kept her hospitalized for three days, she said, and then sent her to a rehabilitation center in Albuquerque, where she kept asking staff members when she could go home.
She and her husband had other chances to get their booster shots, she said, but “I was more willing to come to the church to do it.”
Diego Loya, 22, was looking forward to getting his booster shot at the church Monday as he held a tattered vaccine card.
The first two doses left him feeling ill, he said, but he was optimistic the effects of his booster wouldn’t stop him from working Tuesday.
“I’m going to continue my regular routine,” he said. “I just have to push through.”
Loya said his cousin, who works at First Presbyterian, suggested he get a booster at the church after he had difficulty navigating the state’s online vaccination sign-up system.
Margaret Dean, a member of the church, said getting a booster vaccine where she attends services was the easiest bet. “It’s close and convenient.”
She doesn’t believe staunch “anti-vaxxers” are likely to change their minds about the COVID-19 vaccine anytime soon. But having a public vaccination event at the church might help change some minds, she said. “People who are just hesitant or wa±ing, maybe seeing it right there would make them interested to come in.”
According to a September survey of 6,400 faith community congregants by the Pew Research Center, 39 percent said their religious leaders encouraged them to get COVID-19 vaccinations.
Five percent said their clergy actively discouraged it.
The same survey said a quarter of respondents in the U.S. feel religious organizations have done “more harm than good” in helping to reduce the deadly effects of the pandemic.
Black would like to see that last statistic change.
“The church, I believe, needs to be the headlights guiding society toward compassion, justice and thoughtfulness on COVID-19,” Black said. “Not just the taillights following along.”
His own perspective on the pandemic was heavily affected in July 2020, when his newborn daughter was misdiagnosed with COVID-19 and spent four days in a neonatal intensive care unit.
“You’re wearing full PPE from head to toe, and your daughter is unable to be picked up and loved on the way a little baby should be,” he said. “It was incredibly painful.”
Presbyterian Church (USA) has publicly endorsed COVID19 vaccines. “Our theological commitments compel us to urge that all people be vaccinated against COVID-19,” the organization says in a statement on its website.
Some people have sought religious exemptions to workplace vaccination requirements because cell lines derived from two-decades-old aborted fetuses were used to develop some COVID-19 vaccines — although the vaccines themselves do not contain fetal cells.
Black argued people should consider how remaining unvaccinated by choice may affect people who are alive today.
“It’s very, very important that people be consistent in their ethic,” Black said. “I see a probirth ethic, but not a pro-life ethic.”