|
Dear Friends and Colleagues,
As most of you know, all New Yorkers age 16 and older are now eligible for the COVID-19 vaccine.
As staff people at OPWDD, our decision to be vaccinated is especially critical. Many of the people we support have comorbidities and our choice whether to be vaccinated can have a direct impact on their health and well-being. Beyond the people we support, many people in our families and in our communities have comorbidities, are immunosuppressed or frail and are counting on us to do our part to protect them by protecting ourselves from COVID-19.
Despite the efforts of public health officials and government, vaccine hesitancy remains one of the top 10 global health threats. If you are hesitant to be vaccinated against COVID-19 and have not yet made an appointment, please consider doing so today. And if you have questions or concerns about vaccination, please talk to your physician or your health care provider as soon as possible.
Remember, New Yorkers can schedule an appointment at a state-run mass vaccination site on the 'Am I Eligible' website or by calling 1-833-NYS-4-VAX (1-833-697-4829). You may also call your local health department, pharmacy, doctor, or hospital for additional information and to schedule appointments where vaccines are available.
While about 45 percent of New Yorkers have now received at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine, we remain in a footrace against the infection rate. With each person who chooses vaccination, we take another step closer toward winning that race and returning to the sense of normalcy that most of us desire.
It is widely known that in order for a message to prompt action it first must be heard several times. Toward that end, I am asking every OPWDD employee to help our agency reinforce the message that vaccination is important by adding the below "Don’t Hesitate Vaccinate" graphic to their signature. I hope you will join me in taking this one small step forward in the fight against COVID-19. Thank you for your support.
Sincerely,
Theodore Kastner, M.D., M.S.
Commissioner
The email signature looks like this:
Instruction on setting up an email signature
- In the upper-left corner of the Outlook, select File > Options.
- In the Options window, select Mail > Signatures.
- In the Email Signature section, edit your current signature by copying and pasting the Don't Hesitate Vaccinate graphic that appears above beneath your current signature. To do this, right click on the above graphic then select copy. (Please see example below on how it should look).
- Click OK to save when you're finished.
- Verify that Don’t Hesitate, Vaccinate graphic is being included in all your emails.
And below here is how it should look added to your current properly branded OPWDD signature!
Reminder: Our font is Arial. Please use Arial 12 pt. font for your name and Arial 10 pt. font for your title and the other text in the signature.
Your Name
Your Title
NYS Office for People With Developmental Disabilities
44 Holland Avenue, Albany, NY 12229
OFFICE: XXX-XXX-XXXX | your email
www.opwdd.ny.gov
|
