Opinion: What giving flu shots backstage taught me about public health

For the past two and a half months, I’ve spent many afternoons in the hidden spaces of New York’s performing arts world — its dressing rooms, rehearsal studios, green rooms, and backstage corridors. I’m a physician, and this fall I volunteered as one of two clinicians administering shots for the Entertainment Community Fund’s annual flu vaccination program, presented in partnership with Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS. The long-running program brings free, on-site flu shots directly to casts, crews, musicians, stagehands, ushers, and members of the performing arts community across Broadway, off-Broadway, and beyond.

More than 2,000 flu shots later, delivered over nearly 70 sessions, I’ve come away with a deeper understanding of what community looks like. It was also a window into how public health lives or dies at the level of ordinary, everyday interactions. 

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