A 16-foot-tall video billboard was parked at the Walmart on Ruben Torres Boulevard Wednesday afternoon to urge Brownsville residents to get vaccinated as soon as possible against COVID-19 in order to protect themselves, their families and friends from the virus and speed up the return to normal activities.
Brownsville was the latest stop on a 23-city Texas tour to spread this message from the Department of State Health Services: Get back together. Get vaccinated.
“The vaccines are working,” Dr. Michael Dobbs, vice dean of clinical affairs and chief medical officer for The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley School of Medicine, says in a video on the billboard. “The vaccines were tested in clinical trials with diverse races and ethnicities and are highly effective in preventing serious illness, hospitalization and death.”
Dobbs says hospitalization rates in the Valley have gone down dramatically since January when the vaccines first started to become available.
The billboard announces that vaccinations against COVID-19 are now available on a walk-up basis at Walmart Pharmacies.
“By taking the COVID-19 vaccine, you’re not only protecting yourself, but also your family members, your neighbors, anyone you come into contact with in the community, so for that we all have the responsibility to take the vaccine and protect each other,” City Commissioner Nurith Galonsky says in another video. “If there are things you miss doing from before the pandemic, go out and get the shot because the sooner we all get the shot the sooner we can all get back to normal and doing the things we love.”
Galonsky says she has been vaccinated and she’s really glad because it’s allowed her to relax more in public settings.
The billboard is in English and Spanish. It displayed its message at the Ruben Torres Bouelvard Walmart from 3-7 p.m. Wednesday before continuing on to Corpus Christi, Victoria and other Texas cities.
For more information, go to dshs.texas.gov
