First Lady Murphy Visits Asbury Park Vaccination Center

ASBURY PARK—First Lady Tammy Murphy visited the VNACJ (Visiting Nurse Association of Central Jersey) Community Health Center in Asbury Park on Tuesday.

First Lady Murphy met with local leaders and saw how the senior center handled vaccinations during the pandemic.

The VNACJ has been using the senior center through the pandemic to offer healthcare to low-income residents on the west side of Asbury Park and is now offering walk-in vaccinations.

Christopher Rinn, CEO of the VNACJ Community Health Center, thanked the first lady and the governor for their leadership during the pandemic.

“Thank you for your leadership and for governor Murphy's leadership. We simply wouldn't be where we are today in this pandemic, with a true light at the end of the tunnel, if it wasn't for your great leadership and leadership with the governor,” Rinn said.

“Simply put, every day has been a step forward. But it all starts with community. We wouldn't have vaccinated 25,000 individuals here at the community center in Asbury Park if it wasn't for the resources that we had and great leadership.”

Ensuring that vaccinations are readily available to everyone, regardless of socioeconomic status, was important to the First Lady and the Governor, and making that happen is something that was made sure to be done.

“I think New Jersey has been, honestly, at the leading edge on this from the get-go; we set up the infrastructure here, well, before we even had the supply. And so first it was we had the infrastructure, but we didn't have enough,” Murphy said.

“So people were frustrated because they were trying to sign up for an appointment. And because of the two shots, you couldn't give them the first appointment without making sure you still had the second shot for those who had already had them. So as time has gone by, I think we now have over 800 vaccination sites across the state. And you know, I think 98% of the state is within 15 minutes of a vaccination center.”

When asked about the process of getting vaccinations to the west side of Asbury, Asbury Park’s mayor, John Moor, said that it was accomplished by reaching out to community leaders and get the word out that way.

“The city administration, the council, saw the need immediately, and we hired a staff person. So we could operate 24-seven, and with a special hotline, phone number and through our social services department,” Mayor Moor said.

“We were able to get people into here (the VNACJ Community Health Center), into Second Baptist, into Brookdale, just by reaching out, and we knew we had to reach out as much as possible because most important things are to get as many people vaccinated as soon as possible.”