SYRACUSE, NY – On Tuesday, Connecticut announced that all adults can sign up for Covid-19 vaccines starting next month. Massachusetts said the same thing Wednesday. In Ohio, all adults will be eligible by March 29th.
New York, on the other hand, has just slightly opened the vaccine window this week by adding public and nonprofit workers to the list. Meanwhile, more than 100,000 vaccine appointments remained available throughout the day within a two-hour drive of Syracuse on Wednesday.
“It looks like the state is now pulling regions across certain employment categories, and that doesn’t make sense,” said David Larsen, an epidemiologist and professor of public health at Syracuse University. “I would say open it.”
President Joe Biden has said he wants all U.S. adults to be eligible for the vaccine by May 1st. The federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has provided guidelines on how the vaccine should be rolled out, but decisions about who is eligible depend on each state.
About 10 million people in New York are now eligible, including frontline workers, anyone 60 or older, and residents with underlying health conditions such as obesity and cancer. Governor Andrew Cuomo did not say when he would be eligible for all adults, as other states do. In his briefing on Wednesday, Cuomo said about 3 million New Yorkers have been completely vaccinated, and opening the shots to all adults will cause the pool to swell up to 15 million people.
“You will be eligible for 12 million people who did not receive a vaccine, and then a huge award will come in very quickly,” Cuomo said. “It is therefore a logistical nightmare for the state to act.”
Yet there are enough slots that have not yet been filled. At 5 p.m. Wednesday, at least 100,000 vaccine appointments were still open at the five state-owned sites within 20 miles of Syracuse: New York State Fair, SUNY Oneonta, Binghamton University, Rochester Dome Arena and SUNY Polytechnic Institute in Utica. These appointments last until May 31st.
These are just the sites in Central New York run by the state Department of Health. It does not include ten other state-run websites in New York and dozens of other clinics run by pharmacies and counties.
In Oneida County, more than 1,700 appointments remained open this morning over the next few days, including more than 300 for today. Onondaga County’s clinic still had slots this morning from 9:30 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. to open every ten minute intervals
Larsen notes that just before Wednesday afternoon, appointments were available at the Onondaga County Clinic for the same afternoon.
“Why is vaccination still available today?” he asked. “At 12 o’clock I think there would be no slots available.”
When the vaccines began rolling out to limited groups in the public in February, appointments were snatched up because the huge demand outweighed the limited supply. Now, with the addition of a third approved vaccine and increased production, the appointment slots are filling more slowly.
Larsen said the first waves of vaccines were designed to protect those most vulnerable to contracting the new coronavirus or serious diseases: residents of nursing homes, health workers and first responders, the elderly and people with certain underlying conditions. Now, he said, we need to move towards preventing the transmission of the virus, and that means vaccinating as many people as possible.
Neighboring countries do it. Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker announced Wednesday that by April 19, any resident who is at least 16 will be able to sign up for a vaccine. In Connecticut, all adults are eligible for April 5; in Ohio, residents 16 years and older can get shots from March 29th.
The Food and Drug Administration has approved the Moderna and Johnson & Johnson vaccines for 18 years and older. Pfizer has been tested in and approved for everyone 16 years and older. Clinical trials are underway to see if the vaccines are safe and effective for children.
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