Dr. Fauci’s Vaccine Cavalry Arrives on the East End

Pictured Above: Covid-19 vaccine clinics like one that delivered 1,000 doses of the Pfizer vaccine to Southold seniors on Thursday, March 4 have been popping up all over the East End.

More and more Covid-19 vaccination clinics are on the horizon on the East End in the upcoming weeks, as eligibility criteria begins to widen and more vaccines begin making their way to the states.

New Yorkers over the age of 60 are eligible to receive the Covid-19 vaccine beginning Wednesday, March 10, and public-facing government and public employees, not-for-profit workers who provide public-facing services to New Yorkers in need and essential in-person public-facing building service workers will be eligible to receive the vaccine next Wednesday, March 17.

New York State announced Monday it will be opening a mass vaccination site at Stony Brook Southampton College in the upcoming weeks. We’ll have more details as they become available. Here’s where to register on the state’s mass vaccination registration website, though the Southampton location has not yet been added to the list of options. You can also register by calling 1-833-NYS-4-VAX.

After a successful clinic last Thursday, Stony Brook and Southold Town are planning another senior vaccination clinic for this Thursday, March 11 at the Southold Recreation Center. Here’s how to register.

Stony Brook Southampton Hospital will also be distributing the Pfizer vaccine to frontline workers and people ages 65 and over this Thursday, March 11. Here’s more info on registering.

Northwell Health is also scheduling vaccinations online here.

As of March 17, all vaccine providers in New York, with the exception of pharmacies, which have been charged with vaccinating solely senior citizens, can vaccinate anyone eligible to be vaccinated in the state.

Pharmacies can vaccinate anyone 60 years old and over as of March 10 — they had previously been limited to ages 65 and up.

Currently, county health departments have been vaccinating primarily frontline workers, hospitals have been vaccinating health care workers, pharmacies have been vaccinating seniors and the state’s mass vaccination sites are able to vaccinate people in any of these eligibility groups, including people with pre-existing conditions.

New York State received 1,020,660 doses of Covid-19 vaccine from the federal government in the week from March 1 to March 7, a fourfold increase from the roughly 250,000 doses the state was receiving per week when it opened up eligibility to senior citizens and frontline workers in mid-January.

As of Tuesday, March 9, Suffolk County reported that 277,579 county residents had received at least one dose of the vaccine — about 18.7 percent of the county’s population, while 140,360 residents had been fully vaccinated.

Numerous vaccination clinics have popped up on the East End in the past week, including one in which Stony Brook Medicine delivered 1,000 doses of the Pfizer vaccine to seniors at the Southold Recreation Center in Peconic on March 4, one in which Riverhead seniors received 1,000 doses of the Moderna vaccine on March 5, and two clinics at the East Hampton Center for Humanities in Wainscott March 5 and 6 in which seniors received 1,200 doses and frontline workers received 340 doses of the Pfizer vaccine.

“Getting our residents vaccinated is the most important effort the Town can undertake right now,” said East Hampton Town Supervisor Peter Van Scoyoc. “I want to express my gratitude to Stony Brook Medicine for using our facility to administer vaccines to our seniors and County Executive Steve Bellone for supporting our efforts by supplying vaccine for the town to administer. We look forward to continuing our partnership to ensure that all of our residents have access to Covid-19 vaccines and to put this year-long nightmare behind us.

East Hampton residents who wish to hear about future clinics can pre- register through the town’s new website: https://ehtownvaccine.org. Those who pre-register will be notified of potential clinics based on
eligibility. Over 4,000 residents have registered to date.

The new Johnson & Johnson Covid-19 vaccine is making its way out to the East End this week — the vaccine was distributed at two fully booked vaccine clinics at Stony Brook Eastern Long Island Hospital in Greenport Tuesday and Wednesday.

OLA of Eastern Long Island has also been working with East Hampton and in Greenport to run vaccination clinics at local churches to focus on reaching communities of color.

On Wednesday, March 3, 237 doses of the Pfizer Covid-19 vaccine were administered at St. Agnes Parrish in Greenport by a Northwell Health medical team as part of a Heath Equity Task Force initiative with local leadership from CAST, Clinton Memorial A.M.E Zion Church, Sonia Spar, Sr. Margaret Smyth, Padre Gerardo Romo, and OLA. Dedicated volunteers, many of which are bilingual, served to help the day run smoothly and efficiently. 

“The work of registering and assisting the North Fork Black and the Hispanic/Latinx communities in such short span time, was purely a miraculous feat,” said Pastor Natalie Wimberly of Greenport’s Clinton A.M.E. Zion Memorial Church. “Great work was accomplished by agencies concerned about the health and well being of our communities. Clinton Memorial A.M.E. ZION greatly appreciates the privilege of working with OLA , St. Agnes and Northwell Health along with the volunteers.”

“This is what it’s all about: collaboration,” said OLA Executive Director Minerva Perez. “We knew the job we had to do and we did it.”