“This one is quieter. All our inents are familiar with this population. We provide housing for those who need it,” said Dr. Wendy Ross, director of the Jefferson Health Center for Autism and Neurodiversity, said.
The waiting room had only two chairs and the staff had a turn-by-turn, headphones and sunglasses on hand.
The clinic gave about 50 Johnson & Johnson vaccinations in more than six hours.
The providers who oversee it say this slow pace is what their IDD patients, those with mental or developmental disabilities, need.
“Not everyone tolerates large crowds and lines, and I think especially the population we serve runs a great risk of dying from COVID,” Ross said.
Ross and her team conducted a study of more than 64 million COVID-19 cases and found that IDD patients are almost six times more likely to die from the virus, the second-highest risk factor besides age.
“A lot of people we know in this category do not really know how to protect themselves, or they can not really tolerate it. I do not like to tolerate it,” said Stanley Jaskiewicz, who took his son to the clinic. “He did not fit into any of the categories. We did not know when or where.”
Batisha Andrews is a Jefferson patient, and so is her brother Shawn.
They both say that they are grateful for this clinic and that it is just one shot.
“I feel great that I was finally able to get the vaccination,” she said.
Following Jefferson’s study, 11 states, including Pennsylvania, changed their vaccination of vaccines to IDD patients.
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