By David P. Ball
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The first clinics to start vaccinating Downtown Eastside (DTES) residents opened their doors over the weekend at multiple locations in the neighbourhood, with line-ups stretching for hours around the Carnegie Centre in the heart of the neighbourhood.

Vancouver Coastal Health held the two-day clinics for locals who are homeless, in single-resident occupancy apartments, or in supportive housing — but they told The Pulse on CFRO that more residents and frontline workers will have the opportunity to be vaccinated this week, with dates still to be determined.

Egor Marov received his vaccine on Friday at the Carnegie, and a day later told The Pulse on CFRO he felt good and had no side effects, but was grateful for the opportunity.

"I'm feeling good, no problems," he said. "I was sitting here, the lady came and said, 'Two more, you and another lady.'"

"So I went in, and two minutes later, I finished...I have been before, every time I've taken a flu shot with no effect, no dizziness, I said, 'Why not?!'"

His second shot is on Feb. 25, which will give him up to 94 per cent protection against the most serious side effects of COVID-19. But health officials are telling recipients that the vaccine doesn't necessarily prevent the disease from being caught or transmitted, so masks and distancing must still be observed until the pandemic is over.

But not everyone feels comfortable receiving the vaccine, with several residents expressing worries about the new drug's safety and others saying they don't trust the health care system or medical experts because of racism they had experienced.

"I have mixed feelings," said Yvonne Mark, outside the Carnegie Centre, who had COVID-19 earlier in the pandemic and stayed home with chills until recovering.

"What you see on the news is either good or bad...My own personal thing is ignorance and fears -- I don't know what's really in it, is this really going to work. You can go all the way back to polio, smallpox blankets, a lot of shit has happened in the medical system. That still happens," Mark added.

According to Vancouver's chief public health officer, Dr. Patricia Daly, she has full confidence in the vaccine's safety and hopes DTES residents talk to their friends who received it as well as health professionals -- and that no questions are off-limits and they will try to answer anyone's concerns.

"This is an incredibly safe vaccine," Daly told The Pulse on CFRO, as she administered doses of the vaccine herself inside the pop-up clinic Saturday. "It causes perhaps a little bit of a sore arm, very rare serious side effects, and it's very, very effective.

"We've now vaccinated a large number of people in the DTES, so talk to your friends, your colleagues, or people who work where you may live and they can tell you what their experience has been...If you're not certain, come down to a clinic and people can talk to you about the questions you do have," she added.

The last person to receive the shot on the weekend said he was surprised when health workers approached him randomly on the street inviting him in with several doses set to expire at day's end on Saturday.

"This was kind of a surprise, I was just walking by!" said Peter Kent, as he waited the recommended 15 minutes in case of any rare side effects inside. "It was exciting, I'm grateful...How fortunate I just walked by and they said, 'You can have the shot.'

"I know they probably haven't had a lot of time to study the inoculation...however I'm not too worried about. I think I'd rather take the risk of having the shot than make myself vulnerable to COVID-19," he added.

For DTES jazz musician Dalannah Gail Bowen, the choice to get vaccinated wasn't made easily, and she said she actually ended up changing her mind and getting it on Saturday.

"A month ago, I probably wouldn't have taken it," she told The Pulse on CFRO. "My thoughts about it shifted because I don't think anybody is impervious to this, and everybody has the potential to be affected...That's why I changed my mind.

"We are in a community where...there's lots of opportunity for the pandemic to spread. I considered not getting the vaccine, but I'm 75...It's a personal choice, for sure. However, it is serious, so whatever we can do to be proactive in prevention, the better," she added.