Vaccine Sticker Tree Grows Outside Armory In Washington Heights

WASHINGTON HEIGHTS, NY — In a community that has seen a disproportional rate of sickness and loss of life due to the coronavirus, a symbol of Washington Height's effort to vaccinate itself is growing outside the Fort Washington Avenue Armory.

It's the Vaccination Sticker Tree, as dubbed on social media by Washington Heights residents, and it is collecting stickers every day outside the Armory on 169th Street.

In a way that seems strangely powerful, the sticker tree is growing out of a nondescript pole on the side of the street — the most commonplace element of an urban environment given new meaning from the Washington Heights community it sits in.

The stickers are mostly either NewYork-Presbyterian Columbia Medicine badges or the yellow and pink slips that indicate the time you're allowed to leave after getting the vaccination shot — 15 minutes after the jab.

The vaccination effort in Washington Heights and Upper Manhattan as a whole has not been one without bumps and stumbles.

The area was initially a vaccination desert, with no vaccination sites above 134th Street despite Washington Heights and Inwood consistently having the highest COVID-19 rates in Manhattan.

The vaccination desert also came in contrast to Washington Heights and Inwood being home to by far the most essential workers in Manhattan.

All was not fixed once the Armory vaccination site opened, as a bombshell report from The City revealed that the majority of people landing vaccines at the Washington Heights site were white and not from the area — despite 69 percent of residents in the neighborhood being Hispanic.

There were no Spanish translators at the vaccination site until the report from The City inspired changes.

The changes also included a new requirement of residency in Upper Manhattan or the Bronx for anyone to get a vaccination from the Amory.

Now, a new variant of COVID-19 has been cited as possibly originating in Washington Heights, causing a new surge in worry and unmerited generalizations of the neighborhood from the outside world.

While Anthony Fauci did say the variant "likely" started in Washington Heights, both Columbia researchers and local health officials have emphasized that the variant has been seen all across the city, and the so-called origination in Washington Heights could be attributed to the location of the Columbia research center on 168th Street and its scientists having greatest access to local residents.

Either way, the Vaccination Sticker Tree will continue to grow on 169th Street, hopefully providing a little bit of comfort to anyone that walks by.