UW Medicine and the Seattle Mariners today announced a partnership to help COVID-19 vaccines reach underserved communities in our region. In addition to going into communities with a mobile vaccination program, the partnership includes a community awareness campaign, "This is our shot to strike out COVID-19," featuring Mariners players and personnel encouraging vaccine acceptance.
As part of this partnership, the Mariners will provide $2 million in funding to support UW Medicine's community outreach strategies and mobile vaccination efforts that are based primarily at Harborview Medical Center. These programs aim to raise awareness for the safety and importance of the vaccine and make the vaccine easily accessible, particularly in those communities that have been disproportionately affected by the pandemic, historically marginalized by healthcare systems, and in which vaccine hesitancy and skepticism have been documented.
Black, Hispanic and multiracial populations in Washington state have received fewer doses of the COVID-19 vaccine compared to other communities, according to data from the Washington State Department of Health.
"Ensuring that every person is both willing and able to be vaccinated is critical to our community's ability to end the COVID-19 pandemic," said John Stanton, Mariners chairman and managing partner. "The Mariners are proud to join UW Medicine to both increase vaccine willingness and reduce the barriers to vaccination in our region."
Mariners players, coaches, broadcasters and alumni will help to educate and inform the public by sharing videotaped messages to encourage widespread participation in COVID-19 vaccinations. Current and former Mariners participating in the community awareness campaign are baseball Hall of Famer Edgar Martinez, "Mr. Mariner" Alvin Davis, pitcher Yusei Kikuchi, first baseman Jose Marmolejos, manager Scott Servais and third base coach Manny Acta. Their messages, which are recorded in English, Spanish and Japanese, highlight how vaccines can keep our community safe and begin to restore normalcy to our lives.
"We are extremely grateful to the Mariners in helping us mobilize COVID-19 vaccination programs in underserved communities throughout our region and to the players and other Mariners personnel for using their platform to encourage fans to get vaccinated," said Dr. Paul Ramsey, CEO of UW Medicine. "This partnership between UW Medicine and the Mariners is a great example of how our community has come together and pitched in to save lives and end this pandemic."
