Helping someone get vaccinated just might be the most neighborly thing anyone can do during this pandemic.

"In this situation, we got to help one another,” Texroy Vickerie told NY1.

Vickerie and his friend Patricia Russell not only came together to get their COVID-19 vaccines Tuesday, they brought their 96-year-old neighbor with them.

What You Need To Know

  • Eight pop-up vaccination sites opened up in churches statewide this week including Brooklyn and the Bronx

  • Churches are helping the state vaccinate people of color for COVID-19, many of whom historically have not trusted vaccines

  • Three-hundred churches and cultural centers statewide will eventually help with the state’s vaccination plan

“I know too many people who came down with the virus who were hospitalized. Not only that, those who got over the virus are still not well,” explained Russell.

They got their inoculations at a pop-up vaccination site at the Bethany Baptist Church in Bedford-Stuyvesant, one of several churches statewide taking part Tuesday in an effort by the Cuomo administration to get the vaccine to neighborhoods — mostly in Black and Latino communities that don't have access to quality health care.

Two-hundred-and-fifty doses were available at the church Tuesday. Eventually, 300 churches and cultural centers across the state will host similar clinics to help make sure there is equity in the distribution of vaccine, and to ease any concern in the Black community about the vaccine, mending a legacy of unethical medical experiments on Black people in the early- to mid-20th Century.

Reverend Adolphus Lacey says he spends a lot of his time trying to inform people of color in his community about the vaccine. He says closing that trust gap and getting as many people vaccinated as possible are among the most important things his church has done in its 138 year history.

“This virus is indiscriminate. Makes no difference of your wealth and sometimes even your health. It’s a silent, deadly killer that takes place,” said Pastor Lacey.

On Tuesday, no one here seemed reluctant to get vaccinated. The pop-up site will reopen in about three weeks to administer the second doses of the vaccine.

Texroy Vickerie and his neighbors say they will be back, hoping others follow their lead.