Notice

This article was written before the day that the CDC has declared a pause in the use of the J&J vaccine. The current status of administering vaccines at the Native Pride Travel Plaza, as to whether they have switched to other vaccines or have stopped altogether, is currently unknown. The article below remains unchanged.

–

It was but a year ago that article after article was about bad news regarding the coronavirus. An event is canceled, a factory shuts down production, some layoffs in the trucking industry. Now we are on the upswing as good news takes hold. The first truck stop to offer vaccines to truckers is now open for injections.

The What Where and Why of Vaccination

Truckers traveling through New York may want to stop off at Native Pride Travel Plaza near Irving.

The owner of the truck stop, J.C. Seneca of the Seneca Nation, is working with G-Health Medical Enterprises. J.C. Seneca is an entrepreneur, owning not just a truck stop but also his own fleet of trucks to deliver the fuel and his own brand of cigarettes to the truck stop. G-Health is a non-profit that describes itself as “…devoted to improving your total health and well-being.”

“We have to reach a certain percentile to make sure that as a nation, we can get through this period of this pandemic, and come out on the other side better off,” Seneca said about the program.

The truck stop clinic accepts Natives from the Allegany and Cattaraugus Territories and residents from surrounding communities, plus truck drivers no matter where they are from. Considering how truckers are away from home for an extended period, this is a problem that needed solving.

Conclusion

In our previous article discussing the vaccines, we said that the Johnson & Johnson vaccine would be the best for truck stops due to its practicality. It appears that the Native Pride Travel Plaza agrees, and is administering roughly 400 J&J shots per day.

Hopefully other truck stops will be able to follow suit.

Article courtesy of TopMark Funding.