Inspired By Grandpa, Wash Heights Woman Helps Vaccine Effort

WASHINGTON HEIGHTS, NY — Washington Heights native Jasmine Santana knows firsthand the devastation and loss of the coronavirus pandemic. The 26-year-old lost her grandfather to the virus in January 2021.

Now, Santana is taking action to help others within her community.

Inspired by the memory of her grandfather and an intimate understanding of how COVID-19 has disproportionally affected the Washington Heights community — Santana recently began working for a bilingual vaccine hotline with both English and Spanish speakers to help community members in Upper Manhattan and the South Bronx make vaccine appointments at the Armory in Washington Heights.

The hotline was launched on Feb. 23 by the Northern Manhattan Improvement Corporation (NMIC) and NewYork-Presbyterian.

For Santana, joining the hotline staff felt like the "logical" thing to do.

"It felt like the logical thing to do, to step in and help because I had seen firsthand how COVID-19 disproportionately affected my community and how folks didn't have access to the vaccine at the armory initially," Santana told Patch.

"So I was eager to hop onto a line that would specifically support and target folks who were the most vulnerable and had a hard time with the technology and language barriers."

The service operates Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 4:45 p.m. and has already helped 3,798 community members schedule appointments. The volume in appointments is also trending upwards as the hotline helped 500 people schedule vaccines just on Tuesday.

Santana works the part-time afternoon shift that goes Monday through Friday from noon to 3:30 p.m.

While there are many ways to help in the fight against the coronavirus pandemic, Santana knew she wanted to do something that specifically aided Spanish-speaking people who might have accessibility issues in the quest to get vaccinated.

"I am a very community-based person, so in being born and raised here, I know how often Black and Brown Spanish-speaking immigrant folks are overlooked," Santana told Patch. "I saw with my loved one how folks really had a lack of access in vaccines, particularly elderly folks who aren't as well versed with technology. It just made sense as a bilingual native speaker to do everything in my power to help people with the language barrier."

Santana's work at the hotline has also provided some personal comfort.

"I only live a few blocks away from NewYork-Presbyterian, I was born there, my grandpa spent his last days battling COVID there, I ran there shortly after getting the call with my grandmother and mother, so this community is home," said Santana. "But it is also in staying home and being part of the community that is here for the long haul, sticking around, it becomes a place of a multitude of things, both great joy and also great pain and great grief. So, to me, the hotline felt like the right thing to do. This effort has been very fruitful both professionally and personally."

Here is the bilingual vaccine hotline number: (646) 838-0319. You can find out more details about eligibility on the Northern Manhattan Improvement Corporation's website.