{shortcode-83c12ab9dbbd791e9122689756c9639434739ad6}

More than a hundred Cambridge residents received free flu and Covid-19 vaccines at the Cambridge Senior Center on Tuesday, kicking off the city’s annual series of free pop-up vaccine clinics.

The Cambridge Public Health Department operates five annual vaccine clinics every October, setting up at different public locations across the city. Residents as young as 6 months old can receive free vaccines at any of the clinics.

Dawn Baxter, the director of communications for the city’s Public Health Department, said that the clinic locations were chosen to reach all parts of the city ahead of winter flu season.

“We try to cover the city and make the clinics as accessible as we can for people,” Baxter said.

“In the clinics — particularly in the senior buildings and the meals programs and shelters — people tell us that probably they wouldn't be getting the vaccine if we didn’t make it so easy for them,” she added.

Residents who attended on Tuesday similarly praised the accessibility of the clinics. Stephanie Groll, who said she has attended a clinic every year since the city began offering them, said that the clinics are “an example of our city working really well.”

“When I come, I see people I know here, so it just feels like a community event, and we’re all taking care of each other by getting our vaccines,” Groll said.

The city has offered free flu vaccine clinics for more than a decade, but added Covid-19 vaccines in 2021.

City officials worried that widespread misinformation about the safety of vaccines would impact the number of residents coming to the clinics, but attendance on Tuesday did not appear to be impacted.

The Tuesday clinic had 160 residents registered, and 140 had already received vaccinations within two hours of the clinic opening, according to Anna Kaplan, the Public Health Department’s director of epidemiology and data services. The clinics also accept walk-in patients.

“We vaccinated more people than I expected today, which is great, especially with all the federal confusion — and, to be honest, misinformation — that we’ve seen circulating, I'm really pleased with the turnout today,” Kaplan said.

Kaplan also said she was “very grateful” for state mandates, which encourage both flu and Covid-19 vaccines for residents as young as 6 months old.

Roughly 20 volunteers and members of the Cambridge Fire Department operated the clinic on Tuesday. The city’s Chief Public Health Officer Derrick Neil, who helped staff the clinic, lauded the community’s effort in making vaccines accessible — especially for residents who may not have other access to them.

“Those who aren’t insured, we go the extra mile to provide these free services to them so it makes us more resilient and healthier as a community,” Neil said.