Why they got the shot: TTC clinic convinces Torontonians to roll up their sleeves after months of waiting
Joe Gomes was riding the TTC when he saw the sign: a pop-up COVID-19 vaccination clinic was operating inside Victoria Park Station.
“I’m thinking now about getting the shot,” he said as he stood in the station mezzanine, watching a handful of other commuters filter in and roll up their sleeves.
Gomes had not yet had any doses, but after taking it all in and chatting with staff he made up his mind: “I’m doing it for sure.”
“If you put theses clinics in the right spot at the right time, people, many for the first time, will come out to get vaccinated,” Toronto Mayor John Tory had said an hour earlier, as the city announced it would be operating up to 200 mini-clinics a week in high-traffic areas like grocery stores, malls, parks, and more.
“A lot of people procrastinate right,” Scott Patterson told CTV News Toronto Tuesday after his getting his second dose at the TTC pop-up. “So the fact that I saw this here, I thought of the convenience, and I’ll just get my vaccine right?”
“Everything is feeling good!” Severino Oquendo echoed. His adult son had taken him for his second dose ahead of a November trip to the Philippines.
“Accessibility is super important, right,” said Oquendo’s son Leslie. “So the fact that we can have people on the way to work, or after work, take a vaccine, I think that’s super important.”
“I know it can seem hard to believe that some people who want a shot still haven’t gotten one, but that’s exactly what we’re seeing,” Board of Health Chair Joe Cressy said Tuesday. “For many Torontonians, the issue remains access and not opposition to vaccines.”
For Natalie Byrd though, the decision to get vaccinated was months in the making.
“I’ve been doing a lot of thinking, a lot of things going through my head,” she explained.
But after hearing about the subway-line clinic, she thought it was the right fit—the right time for her shot.
She barely felt the needle, she said, and would now encourage anyone hesitating to seek out a shot. The TTC pop-up, she said, was quick, convenient, and easy.
“There’s a lot of traffic that goes through the system, and so they might think twice and just say—‘let me just go and get it.’”
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
Several flight attendants from Pakistan have gone missing after landing in Canada
Multiple flight attendants from Pakistan International Airlines have abandoned their jobs and are believed to have sought asylum in Canada in the past year and a half, a spokesperson for the government-owned airline says.
Premiers not being truthful about carbon tax, Trudeau says while sparks fly in Ottawa
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says Conservative premiers across the country are 'not telling the truth' when it comes to the carbon tax. Trudeau's comments came as fresh sparks were flying in Ottawa at a recalled House of Commons committee.
A Nigerian woman reviewed some tomato puree online. Now she faces jail
A Nigerian woman who wrote an online review of a can of tomato puree is facing imprisonment after its manufacturer accused her of making a “malicious allegation” that damaged its business.
Far North police 'dispatch' polar bear stalking schoolyard
Police and local hunters in an Ontario Far North First Nation community have “dispatched” a polar that was showing abnormal behaviour and treating the area as a hunting ground.
Cargo ship had engine maintenance in port before Baltimore bridge collapse, officials say
The cargo ship that lost power and crashed into a bridge in Baltimore underwent 'routine engine maintenance' in port beforehand, the U.S. Coast Guard said Wednesday.
'Ninja,' Twitch's biggest streamer, is diagnosed with skin cancer
American gamer and Twitch superstar, Tyler 'Ninja' Blevins, revealed he was diagnosed with melanoma, a form of skin cancer.
Donald Trump assails judge and his daughter after gag order in N.Y. hush-money criminal case
Donald Trump lashed out Wednesday at the New York judge who put him under a gag order that bars him from commenting publicly about witnesses, prosecutors, court staff and jurors in his upcoming hush-money criminal trial.
Here's what Trudeau says the upcoming federal budget will offer renters
The federal government will create a new 'Canadian Renters' Bill of Rights,' which would require landlords to disclose their properties' rental price history to prospective tenants.
Families shocked after Niagara Falls hotel cancels bookings made year in advance of solar eclipse
After having the foresight to book their Niagara Falls hotel rooms more than a year in advance, several families planning to take in the solar eclipse next month were shocked to find out their reservations had been cancelled.