You Can Now Get Vaccinated at Strip Clubs

The more COVID-conscious among us would probably get a vaccine from a stranger out of the back of a van if they had to, but some of us are a bit more selective about when and where we get the jab. It’s why I wanted to get mine in my safe space among the snacks and cosmetics under the fluorescent lighting of a CVS instead of a Walgreens (it’s a Coke vs. Pepsi situation, and it’s why Roberto Montti, a man from Las Vegas, elected to get his at a nearby strip club.

Montti told the Associated Press that while he probably would’ve gotten the shot he’d been putting off eventually, the comforting prospect of getting the jab at Larry Flynt’s Hustler Club — an establishment that felt more “familiar” to Montti than your typical vaccine administration site — encouraged him to get a jump on it. “I’ve been here so many — I’ve been here a few times. … Maybe 10 times, give or take,” he told the outlet.

Health officials overseeing the initiative — which has also been adopted by other strip clubs in Vegas and New Orleans — describe strip joint vaccination as “just another way to access our population,” as JoAnn Rupiper, chief nurse of the Southern Nevada Health District, put it. “It might attract some people who like the novelty of it, I suppose.”

Indeed, that novelty has even been enough to sway some vaccine fence-sitters. Las Vegas resident Michael Myers told the AP he “was going to wait” to get vaccinated, until his wife informed him they could both head on down to the Hustler Club for a shot and a show. “I said, ‘Flynt’s Hustler?’ She said ‘Yeah.’ I said, ‘Oh! Let me consider,’” said Myers.

“A lot of people that wouldn’t ordinarily do it, a lot of guys, they said, they came here because it’s Hustler,” said Myers’ wife Harper. Their friend offered the not altogether intelligible declaration, “Nothing says vaccinations like a stripper pole.”

The clinic was reportedly open for several hours at the club Friday night before the venue opened for its regularly scheduled business. While visitors who showed up for the vaccine weren’t treated to a mid-vax show, apparently just setting foot in a strip club was enough incentive for some, who, according to the AP, “admitted they were reluctant to get the vaccine but decided to go for it if it meant visiting a strip club.”

Of course, it’s worth remembering that as long as you are a paying adult, you don’t need an excuse to go to a strip club. But hey, anything that encourages men to both get vaccinated and frequent strip clubs has my full support.