Valley Streamers recount struggle to snag vaccine appointments

Last Sunday, New York state again expanded the pool of people eligible to receive a coronavirus vaccine, this time to those suffering from diseases such as cancer and chronic conditions such as obesity and hypertension. Some 11 million New Yorkers — more than half the state’s population — now qualify for an inoculation. 

But with doses still in short supply, only about 833,000 people in the state have been fully inoculated since the first vaccine to prevent Covid-19 in the United States was approved in December, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In Valley Stream, residents described their frustration as they grapple with scattershot appointment availability, overloaded state websites and uneven dealings with local pharmacies.

As a support staff member at a school in Valley Stream, Mary Colgan managed to get her shots in January, at a hub site at Hillcrest High School in Queens. With New York City sites now restricted to city residents only, however, Colgan was struggling to get a vaccine appointment for her daughter, who recently joined the Malverne Fire Department Ambulance Corps. Although her daughter is scheduled to take her EMS certification in March, Colgan said, she is unable to join ambulance ride-alongs in the meantime to gain experience until she is inoculated.

For appointments outside the city right now, she said, “there’s nothing.”

Scott Wheeler, a village sanitation worker, said he had tried many times a day for the past three weeks to schedule an appointment on the state website. So far, the nearest vaccination location at which he has been able to secure an appointment is in Potsdam, 350 miles upstate.

“As an essential employee who has worked every day throughout this pandemic, I would have thought we would have been given an earlier time frame,” he said. “On top of that, I’m a diabetic.”

Valley Streamer David Sabatino said he had tried to schedule vaccine appointments for his parents since January. He was finally able to book slots at a local pharmacy for last Friday and Saturday, filling out the required state authorization forms only to have the pharmacy reschedule both appointments for next month at the last minute. Sabatino said he was told the appointments he booked were never guaranteed.

Additionally, when vaccine supplies were made available at Walgreens locations on Feb. 12, he read on the pharmacy chain’s website that appointments were available in his area, but those appointment slots disappeared once he created an account on the site for his mother.

“In my opinion, the whole distribution of the vaccine has been haphazard, disorganized and misleading,” he said. “I feel as though this process could have been managed way better if it was more centralized . . . I feel like I’m failing my parents, particularly my mother, who has a compromised immune system.”

Others have described similar experiences on the state appointment website, with appointment slots disappearing after initially appearing to be available. Tony Lombardo described the process as a “s - - t show.”

“It’s all crazy,” he said.

As more appointment opportunities become available, however, residents have been sharing tips on social media on how to snag them. Amna Hussain reported that she was able to get one for her grandmother through Walgreens, and told others how to sign up.

Vivian Stein, who operates a local nursery school, reported she was able to get an appointment through the CVS website, albeit at 5 a.m. Larry Fox said he and his wife were able to get their first doses at Mount Sinai South Nassau earlier in February. Both met the age eligibility for the vaccine, and were able to make appointments by phone after a number of attempts at various sites.

Fox said the vaccination process took minutes once they arrived at their scheduled time.

“We were lucky,” his wife, Ellen Ingber, said. “I made a list of every place that was vaccinating and spent most of my day checking online or calling them trying to find a cancelation after the vaccines were no longer available. I could do that, but there are many other people, people who are elderly or infirm, who can’t do that.”

As of Tuesday, the Mount Sinai South Nassau website reported that there were no longer vaccine doses available and to check back later.