PARK RIDGE, N.J.—Park Ridge public access television will produce a public service announcement featuring a national health expert to encourage residents to get vaccinated against the Covid-19 virus.
The spot will feature Dr. William John Moss, executive director of the International Vaccine Access Center at Bloomberg School of Health, Johns Hopkins University; and Trevor Dublin, administrator of Buckingham rehab/nursing facility in Norwood.
Moss further is a professor in the departments of Epidemiology, International Health and Molecular Microbiology and Immunology at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and a deputy director at the Johns Hopkins Malaria Research Institute.
He is a pediatrician with subspecialty training in infectious diseases, and has worked in Ethiopia, Kenya, South Africa, Zambia, Zimbabwe and India among other countries. He’s formerly of Demarest.
Howard Fredrics, chairman of PKRG-TV, told Pascack Press on April 27 the target audience is viewers who are hesitant or uncertain about being vaccinated, as well as those who are currently opposed to being vaccinated.
“These include people who believe they don’t need the vaccine because they perceive themselves as being healthy, low-risk, or because they believe, incorrectly, that they are fully protected by virtue of having already had Covid-19, as well people from historically and currently under vaccinated communities,” Fredrics said.
Fredrics said the station aims to release the PSA in early June “to afford time for the vaccines to become even more widely available to the general public.”
He said the hope is that individuals motivated by the PSA to get vaccinated won’t experience any difficulty in getting a vaccination appointment.
Several Bergen County facilities, including Bergen New Bridge Medical Center in Paramus, are accepting walk-ins for Covid-19 vaccines, though residents are advised to call ahead to confirm vaccine availability.
Fredrics said the PSA would also address residents’ concerns about the vaccines’ Emergency Use Authorization status. He noted the vaccines have been given to “tens of thousands of Phase 3 trial patients… as well as more than 130 million Americans in real-world widespread distribution, with very few side effects, mostly of a minor nature, with no deaths reported.”
Fredrics said while the PSA might not address the CDC and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s pause, since lifted, in the use of Johnson & Johnson’s Janssen (J&J/Janssen) Covid-19 vaccine, it will “address the very low risk of adverse effects from all Covid-19 vaccines.”
“The content of the PSA does not yet specifically address the J&J vaccine, though broadly speaking, it mentions adenovirus-based vaccines, and addresses the very low risk of adverse effects from all COVID-19 vaccines,” Fredrics said. “We may end up having further specific information included, now that the pause in distribution of the J&J vaccine has ended.”
The PSA will air on Optimum Ch. 77 (Park Ridge) and Verizon FIOS Ch. 22 (Bergen County).