SCARBOROUGH – A few moments after receiving his COVID-19 vaccination on Wednesday, Robyn Goshorn was asked how he felt.
“Thank you for being here,” said the 73-year-old man from South Portland. “And a little guilty too, I think, when thinking about all the people who are still waiting. But we have a wise doctor friend who said if you have a chance to get the vaccine, get it. “
Goshorn and his wife, Alice, 79, were the first to be vaccinated at a mass clinic in Scarborough Downs, the first such facility in southern Maine. MaineHealth, the parent company of Maine Medical Center and several other hospitals and clinics, has partnered with Crossroads Holdings, the company that is rebuilding the former 500-acre harness racing site. Transforming the old grandstand into a 30,000-square-foot clinic was a 15-day Herculean effort that involved more than 40 companies and cost $ 1 million.
“Today’s opening is really about community partnerships and the Mainers’ intense desire to care for their fellow Mainers,” said MaineHealth CEO Bill Caron during a brief ceremony before the opening. “We hope that, at some point, more than 300,000 Maine residents will receive the vaccination by entering that front door. This is the scale we are trying to achieve. “
Maine Health and Human Services Commissioner Jeanne Lambrew was also present and said the launch of the Scarborough Downs website, and others like it, is the result of “hard work, planning, logistics and sacrifice”.
“Today’s emotion is not the same as what historically brought people to this place,” she said. “Instead, it is the enthusiasm of hope.”
SCARBOROUGH, ME – FEBRUARY 3: Alice Goshorn, 79, from South Portland prepares to receive the first dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine from pharmacist Andrea Lai at a mass vaccination clinic at the old Scarborough Downs Racecourse. Alice and her husband Robyn Goshorn, 73, were the first two people to get the vaccine at the newly opened clinic. (Team photo by Derek Davis / team photographer) Derek Davis Buy this photo
In addition to the Goshorns, who agreed to be vaccinated earlier in the day as part of a media availability organized by MaineHealth, another 114 consultations were scheduled for Wednesday afternoon.
Among them was Robert Powers, 82, who drove from Waterboro, York County.
“I called two or three times and just received a recording that said to call again,” he said before his vaccination. “So I called the next morning, spoke directly to someone and made an appointment. I was lucky. “
Many inhabitants of the country were frustrated when trying to make an appointment during the initial launch.
Powers, who is a widower and lives alone, said life has not changed much for him in the past 10 months. He goes out to eat a lot less.
“I’m happy to be done with it,” he said of the vaccine.
The Scarborough Downs site will be open for the foreseeable future, every day except Sunday, and will eventually be able to accommodate 1,500 to 2,000 vaccines per day, depending on supply.
Maine and other states have received more doses of vaccines in the past two weeks and production is expected to continue to increase. Lambrew said the state saw a 16 percent increase last week and next week it will receive another 5 percent in addition
“It is still not enough,” she said.
As of Wednesday morning, at least 120,000 Mainers received their first dose and more than 41,000 individuals received both doses of the Pfizer or Moderna vaccine, or about 3% of the adult population.
Northern Light Health, the parent company of Eastern Maine Medical Center, Mercy Hospital and others, launched its own mass vaccination site this week at the Cross Insurance Center in Bangor. He expects to administer 1,800 doses by the end of the week. Other sites across the state are in the planning stages.
Vaccinations have been taking place at smaller locations for weeks, as Maine moved to Phase 1B of its vaccination plan. Governor Janet Mills instructed clinics to prioritize those 70 and older, while the supply remains limited.
Scarborough was a good location for a mass clinic, Caron said, because of its location between northern York County and southern Cumberland County, where a large percentage of the state’s population lives.
Bill Perry of Wells was among the first appointments early Wednesday afternoon. He arrived about half an hour earlier with his wife, Rose, who at 69, missed the age limit.
“I called for three days and all I got was ‘there’s nothing available’,” said Bill Perry, 74. “The fourth time I called, I logged into an automated system to register. So they called me about a week later and I was booked. I didn’t know what to expect, none of us did. “
For many older Maine residents, their first chance represents a glimpse of hope that a return to normality is possible, although Perry has moderated expectations.
“We will never go back to the normal we used to know, with or without the injection,” he said.
Robyn Goshorn had a different view.
“We don’t plan to change our behavior, but it certainly looks like there’s a future ahead of us,” he said.
The Goshorns were extremely careful during the pandemic. They did not go out to eat or visit friends. They haven’t even taken communion in their church for almost a year.
“We are very lucky, we have what we need, we have a good place to be,” he said. “But isolation is difficult.”
Her first grandson was born last April. He lives in Chicago with his parents, and the Goshorns look forward to the day when they can visit him in person.
Alice Goshorn said she felt a little awkward about receiving the vaccine, because she knew her life would not change overnight.
“I just heard (director of the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention) Dr. (Nirav) Shah in my ear all the time, ‘Be patient. Be patient, ”she said, pausing for a moment. “So, I’m trying to be patient.”
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