Team Charleston supports global pandemic vaccine effort

JOINT BASE CHARLESTON, SC, UNITED STATES

06.24.2021

Story by Airman 1st Class Sara Jenkins 

Joint Base Charleston

The COVID-19 pandemic was a challenging event that caused changes in the military and new ways of doing things had to be implemented in order to keep everyone safe and healthy, including using Active Duty military members to assist in COVID efforts.

Members of Joint Base Charleston, S.C. recently deployed to Minneapolis, Minnesota to assist the Federal Emergency Management Agency in vaccinating citizens of the state.

Capt. Ayesha Safo, a Family Medical Physician and mMedical director of the Family Health Clinic in the 628th Health Care Operations Squadron, went on this deployment to help assist in the process of vaccinating thousands of people.

“Our mission was to provide COVID-19 vaccinations to the community,” said Safo. “We were doing this in support of the state of Minnesota and FEMA.”

Safo explained this deployment was unique because Active Duty military usually is not called upon to support a state in this way.

“This is the first time Active Duty military has been asked to support a state mission like this,” said Safo. “We had vaccine sites pop up all over the U.S. that the DoD was supporting.”

Safo said the mission of this deployment was important because it created more opportunity for more people to receive the vaccine that were having a hard time finding somewhere to get it.

“It was important because we were able to provide accessibility to the vaccine that may not have been available otherwise,” she said.

The vaccine location was vital to ensuring thousands of additional people were able to receive the vaccine because they had the ability to vaccinate large numbers of people and had additional options that were more inclusive.


“I think our location and the Americans with disabilities lane, which was a lane to help people with disabilities get the vaccine, was one of the most important things to help fight the virus,” said Safo. “The ADA lane offered an option for people to stay in their car to get a vaccine and they would not have been able to if it were not for that lane.”

Safo explained that this deployment was rewarding, not only because of what she was doing, but also because of the people she worked with.

“My favorite part about this deployment was being able to work with people from different bases,” she said. “There were people from 24 bases so I got to know people from all over. This was a very rewarding experience. There were multiple times someone told me that our location was the only place they could get in for an appointment and the process was so much easier. They were very grateful that we were there.“

• Date Taken: 06.24.2021
• Date Posted: 06.25.2021 14:46
• Story ID: 399626
• Location: JOINT BASE CHARLESTON, SC, US