The New York Times
Taking care at Quality Health Center in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, Joel Friedman receives a measles-mumps-rubella, or M.M.R., shot from Dov Landra, a physician assistant.
PODs are the sleeper cells of public health, assuming a different shape and observing different local mores each time a crisis emerges. When hepatitis A was diagnosed in a bartender at the Manhattan nightclub Socialista two years ago, POD people were on hand to vaccinate patrons, including some guests at Ashton Kutcher’s birthday party. In the case of a bioterrorism attack, they might turn up in your neighborhood dispensing anthrax antidote. On Feb. 18, they were in Anshe Sfard Hall in the Borough Park section of Brooklyn, rolling up the sleeves of Hasidic Jews. That’s a long way from Ashton Kutcher.