Morehouse School of Medicine receives $2.1M grant for mobile vaccination unit
ATLANTA - Atlanta's Morehouse School of Medicine has received a financial boost for its COVID-19 vaccination efforts.
Bloomberg Philanthropies granted the medical school $2.1 million to expand its programs to provide vaccines to communities in need.
The school says the new grant will allow them to upgrade its mobile medical unit, pay for additional staffing and supplies, and increase outreach.
Using its mobile unit, the school plans to set up temporary vaccination sites in southwest and southeast Atlanta in areas where the population is 92% black and many residents do not have access to equitable care, transportation, internet access, or insurance.
"The pandemic has pulled the curtain down on the glaring socioeconomic and health inequities that make Black and brown populations vulnerable to illness and death from COVID-19," said Morehouse School of Medicine President and Dean Valerie Montgomery Rice, MD. "Morehouse School of Medicine is committed to health equity and advancing public health, and we have done work in this space for more than 40 years. We are immensely grateful for this gift from Bloomberg Philanthropies’ Greenwood Initiative, which will allow us to increase our vaccination initiatives and reach vulnerable populations that still struggle with vaccine accessibility."
Since January, the historically Black medical school has administered 5,200 vaccinations.
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