COVID-19 Music Video Aims To Boost Vaccinations In Fairfax

FAIRFAX COUNTY, VA — Andy "MC Bugg-Z" Lima is an insect biologist in the Fairfax County Health Department's Disease Carrying Insects Program.

Over the years, Lima has gained a reputation as being the department's "rapping entomologist." He's written and recorded a string of science-themed raps, including “West Nile Story” in 2019, “Tick Check 1-2” in 2018, and “Zika 101” in 2016.

Earlier this year, Lima teamed up FCHD facilities coordinator Kelton Williams to produce "Brood X Periodical cicada rap (Brood X-ellence)," about the recent cicada invasion.

It was Lima's reputation that recently prompted FCHD Director Gloria Addo-Ayensu to ask him if he could produce a new video designed to encourage residents who hadn't gotten their COVID-19 vaccinations to do so.

"Our numbers are dwindling a little bit," Lima said. "People who had wanted a vaccine had gotten it. Now it was just about convincing or encouraging people who hadn't done it yet to get out there, grab a friend, and do it."

As of Monday afternoon, a total of 1,377,430 doses of the COVID-19 vaccine have been administered in Fairfax County, according to FCHD's latest numbers. In addition, 750,982 people or 75.5 percent of county residents 18 and older, and 63.5 percent of all Fairfax Health District residents, have received at least one dose of COVID-19 vaccine.

In the Fairfax Health District, 658,221 people have been fully vaccinated, with 67.3 percent of people 18 and older and 55.6 percent of all residents being fully vaccinated.

With Lima writing the lyrics and Williams providing the backbeat, their new COVID-19-themed video, "Game. Set. Vax.," took about three to four weeks to produce. Toward the end of the process, the duo reached out to community health specialist Nikkia Wilkens-Brown to provide a vocal hook for the song.

"I was really excited," she said. "I don't know how they knew I could sing, but nonetheless, I said, 'I'm there.' So they reached out to me one week, the next week we recorded, and then two days later we recorded the video."

Addo-Ayensu not only kicked the video production process off, she provided an introduction in the video, which reimagines a person's visit to the Fairfax County Government Center's vaccination clinic.

Rapping and singing throughout, Lima and Wilkens-Brown lead the visitor past smiling and waving volunteers all the way to the clinic. The video ends with a big party scene in which the volunteers are joined by Addo-Ayensu, Wilkens-Brown, and Lima to clap and sing together until the song's end.

All of the writing, recording, and video production took place outside of normal working hours, according to Lima.

As part of the county's COVID-19 vaccination response, Lima's job has been to manage and keep track of volunteers, telling them which clinics they needed to go to on a daily basis. He sent an alert to the volunteers who scheduled to work at the government center on video recording day, asking if anyone was interested in coming in before the clinic was opened to be a part of the video.

"We got about 50 people to be there to participate in at least some part of it," Lima said.

The video record took about four hours to complete and — much like director Sam Mendes' war film "1917" — the final video is presented as a single shot, according to Lima.

In Virginia, people 12 and older are eligible to receive a COVID-19 vaccination for free. Use Vaccines.gov to find locations providing vaccinations around Fairfax County.