Phoenix Suns, Mercury team up to encourage COVID-19 vaccine with memorabilia giveaways
PHOENIX - The Phoenix Suns and Mercury are teaming up with Banner Health to get more people vaccinated against COVID-19 and are encouraging people to come out to also be entered to win team memorabilia.
The teams are hosting a free vaccination clinic next to the Phoenix Suns Arena in downtown until June 30.
"Right now we’re actually wide open, so you just walk in and you're going to get in and out. We can do up to about 250 people a day. So if you’ve been thinking about it come on down. It’s the Pfizer vaccine so it’s available for anyone 12 years old and up," said Dr. Marjorie Bessel, chief clinical officer with Banner Health.
With the Delta variant spreading, Bessel is hoping people will take advantage of this free clinic.
"This vaccine is very efficacious against this. As of this morning, it looks like it’s 88% effective against that variant, which is great," she said.
To provide an even bigger push to get vaccinated, once vaccinated, people can enter into a drawing to win Phoenix Suns memorabilia.
"When people are thinking about the Phoenix Suns and the Mercury right now, they’re thinking about celebrating the playoff run that we’re in, so we’re really happy to have some incentives to hopefully drive more people down here to get the vaccination. Every day, we’re going to be giving away signed jerseys for active players from both the Mercury and the Suns. Great memorabilia. It’s a huge push for us to capitalize on our run in the playoffs," explained Dan Costello, chief revenue officer for the Phoenix Suns.
This is the reason 18-year-old Michael Arkin chose to come in on Wednesday to get vaccinated.
"I was like cool, I can come down and maybe get some Suns memorabilia and get my second vaccination, so I thought it was really cool," he said.
People will get their first dose at the clinic and Banner will schedule their second dose somewhere closer to home.
For more information on the clinic, visit this link https://www.bannerhealth.com/newsroom/press-releases/vaccinate-the-valley
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