12:12 am UTC May. 2, 2021
NEW ORLEANS Shakeitha Young was home on a rainy Saturday morning, cleaning up bits of toast strewn by her 1-year-old, Jalayah, when the knock came.
A nurse in teal scrubs, rain boots and a white poncho was on her porch, offering Young an on-the-spot COVID-19 vaccine. Young eagerly agreed, swinging open the door with Jalayah propped on her hip in a unicorn shirt and diaper. Despite her job as a hospital technician, sanitizing medical equipment like IV pumps, the 32-year-old single mom of three said she hadn’t yet been offered a shot.
In her quaint, sparsely furnished townhouse tucked in a public housing complex in the city s Upper 9th Ward, nurse practitioner Sophia Thomas injected Young with her first dose of Moderna vaccine.