Whale hello there!
New Yorkers will soon be able to get the COVID-19 vaccine “directly” under the famed big blue whale at the American Museum of Natural History, Mayor Bill de Blasio announced Monday.
The Upper West Side museum will open Friday as a coronavirus vaccination site, de Blasio said during his City Hall press briefing.
“I would say it’s a whale of an announcement or perhaps we are whale-coming this new site,” de Blasio quipped.
The new inoculation site, de Blasio said, will be for “everyone,” but will have a “particular focus” on public housing residents, cultural workers and members of District Council 37.
“We want to reach all these folks who we depend on to bring back our cultural community,” Hizzoner said.
To mark the occasion, the 94-foot-long whale model hanging from the ceiling inside the museum’s Milstein Hall of Ocean Life is now sporting a massive Band-Aid on its fin.
“This is an exciting new effort and I guarantee you a lot of people are going to say, ‘That’s where I want to get vaccinated,’” Hizzoner said.
Ellen Futter, the president of the American Museum of Natural History, appeared virtually during de Blasio’s briefing and said, “We are thrilled to do this for this historic vaccination effort.”
“This institution is dedicated to fostering scientific knowledge and understanding and providing access to the public so I can’t even imagine a more important manifestation of our mission in action,” Futter said.