New Orleans Vaccinated with Watermelon Lemon Drop, Johnson & Johnson COVID Shot | Coronavirus Vaccine

With a band-aid in his arms and a vaccine card in his hand, Sean and Cognos ollie blunted a glass and dropped a festive watermelon lemon drop shot.

This time, the drink was another type of shot tracker.

“It didn’t hurt at all,” said Ollie while she was waiting for her husband to get the Johnson & Johnson COVID vaccine. The two then went straight to Dragons Denver from a vaccine station in the middle of Esplanade Avenue in New Orleans, without skipping beats.

At the Dragon’s Den’s Shots for Shots event, this is the most New Orleans way to convince people to get vaccinated.

Forty people will be registered 15 minutes before the event starts, and the number of lines will increase steadily. pic.twitter.com/EpGzNa9cRY

-Katelyn Umholtz (@ kumh0ltz) April 10, 2021

They were two of the more than 125 people who were fascinated by the promise of free alcohol, as long as they were first vaccinated.

To the right of the couple, DJ RQ Away intermittently interrupted Tyler, Creator, and Lauryn Hill songs, announcing who was next to the vaccine queue. Most people didn’t wait more than 20 minutes.

DJ RQ Away, the planner of the Shot for Shot event, has no objection to bringing public health initiatives to people and targeting young people and minorities, usually in bars and music lounges. Prior to the pandemic, he held an event at the Crescent Care Clinic, providing Tipitina’s guests with tests for sexually transmitted diseases.

Noting the disparity in COVID-19 cases, the deployment of vaccines among blacks, and his enthusiasm to meet people and play music again, he needs his next project with Crescent Care to accompany shots. I knew there was.

“I can’t ask people to care more, but I can make it visible,” said DJ RQ Away. “My followers are mostly young people, blacks and artists, and that’s the purpose of my event.”

Katie Conner, COVID-19 Vaccine Manager at Crescent Care, said it was important that the event was convenient for them in order to attract young people and people of color. And it must be absolutely “cool”.

“We wanted to get the vaccine to people, but cooling it definitely helps to boost it,” Connor said.

So they set up a vaccine station in front of the bar and planned to start the event at 8:30 pm. Not all 244 vaccines were used by 10 pm.

But, as expected, the crowd was overwhelmingly young. Some said they had postponed firing until it contained alcohol.

It was the ultimatum that Briggs Martin declared to his friends. He didn’t get a shot unless he also got another kind of shot.

“They called my bluff,” Martin said, his free shot with one hand and the mirror high-life can with the other. “But that’s the right combination.”

Others came just because of who attended the event. As another way to attract young guests, CrescentCare shot one after another on Friday night to transgender activist and newly licensed EMT Qween Amor.

By 9:40 pm, she said she had jabbed at least 50 arms.

“I wanted to take a shot of myself from her, but I did,” said bookkeeper Erin Street. She was drinking beer on the sidewalk outside Dragon’s Den with Stacey Wall, a woman she met 30 minutes ago while waiting in line for vaccines.

“It’s New Orleans for you,” Street said.

The shots at the event were symbolic to many, but it was the path to almost normal pulsation to New Orleans.

It was also the first night since the pandemic began. Extend last call from 11:00 pm to 1:00 am Yes, progress has been made, but masks are still needed and Dragon’s Den’s capacity is still limited.

“This is probably the most spectacular way to say” f — you “to COVID,” said Emma, ​​a graduate student who doesn’t name her. She appeared to get and shoot her vaccine even before the start time of 8:30 pm. “It’s like a victorious party.”

If New Orleans miss the first Shot for Shot event, Kermit the Frog’s Treme Mother Inlaw Lounge Host your own vaccination event April 17th of the same style: 1 J & J shot, followed by 1 alcohol shot.