Faced with a limited amount of doses of Covid-19 vaccine and what they say is a disjointed system for meeting, some New York residents plan to travel hundreds of miles across the country to get a chance.
Maura Laverty, a 66-year-old nurse from New Rochelle, a suburb of New York City, said she was preparing for a road trip after setting up a meeting in a snow-covered university town near the border. Canadian.
She said she spent hours looking for a place at local government facilities near her in Westchester County, but failed. He then turned to a state-run web portal that allows any eligible New York State resident to book meetings at 13 state-run mass distribution centers.
Jacob. The K. Javits Convention Center, a state-run hub in Manhattan, was her first choice, but the only slots available were at a location in Potsdam, St. Louis County. Lawrence.
“The search was a futile exercise, so I’m going to make a nice little escape,” said Ms. Laverty, who decided to work remotely from a vacation rental for a few days while getting the job.
Maura Laverty, a nurse from New Rochelle, travels about 350 miles to Potsdam for a hit.
Photo:
Maura Laverty
Other New York residents have said their vaccination schedules are a good excuse for a mini-vacation. But most described the appointment process as annoying and said they were frustrated that the state had not allocated more doses to densely populated regions.
Local officials across the state have also complained that the state is diverting valuable doses of vaccine to its own hubs, where any New Yorker can sign up for a meeting – instead of directing them to local pharmacies, clinics or websites. administered by the county, which serve the residents of the area.
Peter Bartfeld, a 70-year-old lawyer, said he had booked a meeting at a hub in Plattsburgh, which he estimated was a six-hour drive from his home in Valley Stream, Long Island. He selected the place after two weeks in which he failed to secure a closer location.
“It’s absurd,” he said. “Obviously, you have a wrong allocation in the state. Why do people have to drive from Long Island to Plattsburgh? ”
About seven million New Yorkers meet current state eligibility criteria, which include people age 65 and older, health care workers, nursing home residents and staff, and key workers, including teachers. State officials say they receive about 250,000 doses of vaccine a week.
About 600,000 people made appointments at state immunization centers, said Department of Health spokesman Gary Holmes, and about 75 percent were made by New Yorkers in the same region of the state. State officials did not respond to requests for demographics about who held a meeting or was vaccinated.
President Biden has announced plans to increase the supply of Pfizer and Moderna vaccines sent to states for the next three weeks and the purchase of additional doses to vaccinate the majority of the US population by the end of the summer. Photo: Doug Mills / Getty Images
Long Islanders can use state hubs at Jones Beach and SUNY Stony Brook, and New Yorkers can use city sites or state hubs at Javits Center or the Queens Aqueduct Racecourse, each of which can vaccinate at least at least 1,000 people a day. For most of last week, the only sites with available appointments were in Plattsburgh and Potsdam, which are in rural areas. Officials say the two sites can handle 500 meetings a day.
Gov. Andrew Cuomo and health officials say vaccine doses are allocated around the state by population, and some providers are tasked with focusing on certain groups: hospitals for health workers, county-run places for essential workers, including teachers, and pharmacies for people 65 and older.
Nancy Bendiner, 73, booked appointments for herself and her husband at a state-run hub in Utica after a county-run clinic near their home in Red Hook, NY was completed in nine minutes. . Their appointments are on consecutive days, so they will spend the night in Utica, she said.
Linda Puiatti, a 65-year-old painter from Dutchess County, travels to Binghamton. “It’s a little sad that we do this in the same way as in the lottery. The person closest to the phone receives the award, “she said.
Linda Puiatti, a painter from Dutchess County, plans to travel about 175 miles to Binghamton for the Covid-19 vaccine.
Photo:
Linda Puiatti
Melissa DeRosa, the governor’s chief aide, said state officials are making sure there is parity between locals and those outside the city. Mr Holmes said the state could look at rebalancing the allocation if there were persistent problems.
“Our goal is to get gunfire as quickly and efficiently as possible – if New York in an area doesn’t reserve all available appointments and someone is willing to travel to get a shot, it only reflects the inadequate supply. of vaccines we have received from the Trump administration, ”he said.
Biden administration officials said last week that they would increase the number of doses allocated to states, a move that Mr Cuomo welcomed.
Local leaders said their vaccine allocations fell as the centers opened. Oneida County Executive Anthony Picente, a Republican whose county includes the state center just outside Utica, said the allocation for a county-established drive-through distribution point has dropped from 3,000 doses in the week of Jan. 5 to 500. of doses for the week of January 20. The state site was opened on January 19.
Mr Holmes would not say how many doses of vaccine are targeted at state centers, but said county allocations have been reduced as the distribution network and eligible population on which local health departments have focused have changed.
Debra Blalock, 68, said she was worried about road conditions, but still planned to drive to Potsdam in Dutchess County for a vaccine. She challenged the ethics of getting a meeting in another part of the state, but said she felt comfortable doing so because people living closer had the same ability to sign up.
Fearing his trip north, Mr Bartfeld said he found out on Thursday that he had managed to get a last-minute meeting at Queens State Center. The process was efficient and everyone was pleasant, he said.
“Once you get this meeting, it’s gold,” he said.
Write to Jimmy Vielkind at [email protected]
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