People enter a COVID-19 vaccination center on Jan. 28, 2021, in New York City.
Note: All names and identifying details in this essay have been changed to protect the privacy of individuals.
When batches of COVID-19 vaccines first arrived in New York City, health care centers were seeking volunteers to help vaccinate. As a medical student in Manhattan committed to doing anything I could to facilitate the pandemic response, I signed up right away.Â
What is typically an indoor running track became a makeshift site for COVID-19 vaccines. At 2 p.m., when I arrived, there was a line of people spilling onto the street: hundreds of them patiently waiting on a pea-green turf, double-checking their proofs of appointments, slightly nervous, their faces only partially visible behind their masks.