Syracuse, NY – On Tuesday, Connecticut announced that all adults could apply for Covid-19 vaccines starting next month. Massachusetts said the same thing on Wednesday. In Ohio, all adults will be eligible on March 29.
New York, on the other hand, opened the vaccine window only slightly this week, adding some public and nonprofit workers to the list. Meanwhile, more than 100,000 vaccine consultations within a two-hour drive of Syracuse remained available throughout Wednesday.
“Now the state appears to be drawing boundaries around certain categories of employment, and that doesn’t make sense,” said David Larsen, an epidemiologist and professor of public health at Syracuse University. “I would say to open.”
President Joe Biden said he wants all adults in the U.S. to be eligible for the vaccine by May 1. The Federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention offered guidelines on how the vaccine should be implemented, but the decisions of who will be eligible when it is up to each state.
About 10 million people in New York are eligible now, including frontline workers, anyone aged 60 and over, and residents with underlying health problems like obesity and cancer. Governor Andrew Cuomo did not say when he would expand eligibility for all adults, as they have done in other states. In his briefing on Wednesday, Cuomo said that about 3 million New Yorkers were fully vaccinated, and opening vaccines to all adults would increase that number to 15 million people.
“You would have 12 million eligible people who didn’t get the vaccine and then a huge allocation coming in very quickly,” said Cuomo. “So this is a logistical nightmare for the state to carry out.”
However, there are many unfilled vacancies. At 5pm on Wednesday, at least 100,000 combined vaccination consultations were still open at the five state-run venues within 120 miles of Syracuse: New York State fairgrounds, SUNY Oneonta, Binghamton University, Rochester Dome Arena and SUNY Polytechnic Institute in Utica. These appointments run until May 31.
These are just the central New York sites administered by the state Department of Health. It does not include 10 other state-run sites in New York that still have vacancies, or dozens of clinics run by pharmacies and counties.
In Oneida County this morning, more than 1,700 appointments remained open in the coming days, including more than 300 for today. The Onondaga County clinic this morning still had open hours at every 10-minute break on Friday, from 9:30 am to 3:00 pm
Just before noon on Wednesday, Larsen noted, consultations were still available at the Onondaga County clinic for the same afternoon.
“Why is the vaccine still available today?” he asked. “At 12 o’clock, I think there should be no vacancies available.”
When vaccines began to be distributed to the public in February to limited groups, the appointments were agitated as the huge demand outstripped the limited supply. Now, with the addition of a third approved vaccine and increased production, the lists of commitments are filling up more slowly.
Larsen said the first waves of vaccines were designed to protect those most vulnerable to contracting the new coronavirus or suffering serious illnesses: nursing home residents, healthcare professionals and first responders, the elderly and those with certain underlying conditions. Now, he said, we need to move to prevent the transmission of the virus, and that means vaccinating as many people as possible.
Neighboring states are doing this. Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker announced on Wednesday that by April 19, any resident at least 16 years old will be able to apply for a vaccine. In Connecticut, all adults will be eligible on April 5; in Ohio, residents age 16 and older can be vaccinated from March 29.
The Food and Drug Administration has approved the Moderna and Johnson & Johnson vaccines for people over 18. Pfizer has been tested and approved for anyone aged 16 and over. Clinical trials are underway to verify that vaccines are safe and effective for children.
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