Mena, pharmacist in northeast Staten Island
After the city announced its mandate, things picked up. That $500 incentive is pushing people in, too. But nobody is thrilled that they’re being forced to get it. Today, I had one man who works for the city argue with me for like half an hour that he doesn’t need to get the vaccine because he’s young — like his mid-40s — and he already had COVID, his family had COVID. He did eventually get it, though.
But I’ve had a lot of people walk out and not get the vaccine. Basically, they come to complain a little and then storm out — or hope that I’ll give them a card without actually giving them a vaccine. That’s happened about five times in the past few weeks. The first person who did this was a man who had a couple of hundreds poking out of the breast pocket of his shirt. He was talking to me, saying, “Oh, I want to get the vaccine,” and then he was pointing at the money. But I didn’t understand because no one has ever asked me that before, and I didn’t think that anyone would. I was absolutely shocked when I realized what he was trying to say. I said absolutely not. After that, some other people came in and hinted at it, offering me money, saying things like, “We’ll take care of you,” or “How much do you want?”
