What to Know
- One menu item is out of the ordinary at a McDonald's restaurant in Massapequa -- as the COVID-19 vaccine was the "special" at the fast-food joint Wednesday.
- Nassau’s health department began taking vaccines directly to businesses last month. The goal is to remove many obstacles stopping workers and customers from getting the shot.
- McDonald's owner Jonah Kaufman plans to hold another pop-up vaccination site at another one of his McDonald's next month.
Would you like fries -- and a COVID shot -- with your order?
One menu item is out of the ordinary at a McDonald's restaurant in Massapequa -- as the COVID-19 vaccine was the "special" at the fast-food joint Wednesday.
"It seems odd that it’s in a McDonalds, that they would be vaccinating people in a McDonalds," customer Lucille Schlecht said.
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However, for McDonald's owner Jonah Kaufman the offer wasn't odd at all.
"We were trying to come up with different ways to get out employees vaccinated," he said.
Kaufman has 700 employees at 11 McDonald's locations throughout Long Island and he would love to get as many of them as possible vaccinated in an effort to combat the ongoing pandemic.
News
With this in mind, he asked Nassau County’s traveling vaccine program to set up shop at his restaurant.
"A model that works is to go to businesses, where people are all the time," Nassau Health Commissioner Dr. Lawrence Eisenstein said.
Nassau’s health department began taking vaccines directly to businesses last month. The goal is to remove many obstacles stopping workers and customers from getting the shot.
"The No. 1 reason for [people not getting vaccinated] is they’re not sure where to go, who to see, what to do," Kaufman said.
This Mcdonald's vaccination pod opened two days after Long Island saw over 1,000 new COVID-19 cases in a 24-hour span -- a number second only to NYC.
However, Nassau County's health commissioner says 75% of those new infections are unvaccinated people -- proof he says that vaccination remains the best way out of the pandemic
"People who are vaccinated are typically not getting extremely sick and dying from this. So it is working the way it’s supposed to," Eisenstein said.
Maybe so, but some here prefer a combo meal minus the vaccine.
"I wouldn’t come here to get vaccinated. That’s the last place I would go," Schlecht, the customer News 4 New York spoke to, said.
Despite some reservations, Kaufman plans to hold another pop-up vaccination site at another one of his McDonald's next month.
