Summit Health joins nationwide campaign with other leading US health care organizations to promote COVID-19 vaccination

BERKELEY HEIGHTS, N.J., April 28, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Summit Health is collaborating with a coalition of 60 of America's top hospitals and health care institutions on a nationwide campaign to encourage adults to get vaccinated for COVID-19. Led by Cleveland Clinic and Mayo Clinic, the campaign "Get the Vaccine to Save Lives," is designed to reassure the public that vaccines are safe, effective and necessary to achieve herd immunity and a return to normal activities.

"Summit Health is committed to safeguarding the health of our patients, providers and employees and stopping the spread of COVID-19. Vaccination is an important step in this endeavor and likely our best hope for ending this pandemic," said Jeffrey Le Benger, MD, CEO of Summit Health. "We are proud to join other leading health care providers across the country in this immense and historic vaccination effort."

The campaign hopes to reach adults who are hesitant to receive a vaccine, including racial and minority ethnic groups and people living in rural communities. According to a Kaiser Family Foundation survey published March 30, 17% of the public say they will take a wait-and-see approach before getting it themselves, and another 20% say they will never get a vaccine or will only get it if required to do so for work, school or other activities. This leaves a significant portion of the population at risk of going unvaccinated. 

The nationwide campaign includes print and digital advertising, media outreach, social media, an awareness video and an informational website.

With vaccine distribution underway, the campaign aims to help Americans feel safe and confident about receiving a vaccine. To achieve herd immunity and help end the pandemic, leading health officials say at least 75% of the population needs to receive a vaccine. Herd immunity occurs when a large portion of a community becomes immune to a disease, making the spread of disease from person to person unlikely. As a result, the whole community becomes protected — not just those who have been vaccinated.

More than 232 million doses of COVID-19 vaccine have been administered and over 54% of the population age 18 and over has received at least one vaccine dose in the U.S. through April 27, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. COVID-19 vaccines were evaluated in tens of thousands of participants in clinical trials. The vaccines met the Food and Drug Administration's rigorous scientific standards for safety, effectiveness, and manufacturing quality needed to support emergency use authorization.

Ethos Creative Group of Burlington, North Carolina, created the campaign and donated their services. The New York Times, The Washington Post, Spectrum Reach and USA Today also provided complimentary resources.

For more information about the campaign, visit ourshot2savelives.org.

About Summit Health
Summit Health is a physician-led, patient-centric network committed to simplifying the complexities of health care and bringing a more connected kind of care. Formed by the 2019 merger between Summit Medical Group, one of the nation's premier independent physician-governed multispecialty medical groups, and CityMD, the leading urgent care provider in the New York metro area, Summit Health delivers a more intuitive, comprehensive, and responsive care experience for every stage of life and health condition through high-quality primary, specialty, and urgent care.

Summit Health has more than 1,600 providers, 8,000 employees and over 200 locations in New Jersey and New York, as well as more than 130 providers and six locations in Central Oregon. For more information, please visit summithealth.com.

SOURCE Summit Health

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