Following reports earlier this week that suburban residents are flocking to the Fort Washington Armory in Manhattan to be vaccinated, a new policy has been introduced that requires anyone making an appointment on the premises to provide proof of their stay in the five districts tone.
The New York Presbyterian, which operates the premises, further specified that 60% of the appointments for residents of Washington Heights, Inwood, Harlem and the South Bronx will be set aside (although all existing appointments for first and second doses will be adhered to) .
But the ban on residents from outside the city will not ensure that the residents who are eligible for the vaccine – who are 65 and older – also get appointments. New York Presbyterian says it is working with more than 40 community- and faith-based organizations to reach residents in the neighborhoods they are supposed to serve.
“We can use a similar approach to what we did with the Census, to be on the ground and with a tablet on the street and to reach out where people are,” said Maria Lizardo, executive director of the Washington Heights, nonprofit of North Manhattan improvement, said. Corporation, adding that more government support is needed to do this kind of outreach. She believes the people she works with at New York-Presbyterian are “well-meaning and willing to stand up for the community and receptive to feedback.”
The controversy over who is first in Washington Heights is part of an ongoing conversation about how the city can ensure equitable access to the coronavirus vaccine. Despite Mayor Bill de Blasio and Governor Andrew Cuomo’s insistence that communities hardest hit by the coronavirus should not be left behind, early data in December showed that blacks and Latinx New Yorkers were vaccinated at much lower prices than whites. The mayor said updated demographic data would be made available this week, but the deadline was extended to Sunday.
Lizardo, who is an ambassador at Cuomo’s Task Equality Task Force, noted that much more needs to be done to reach out to ‘trusted messengers on the ground’, both to help people who want to be vaccinated and to provide more information to those which is still skeptical.
Other efforts could include: proactively qualifying for recipients, outreach at food pantries and setting up dedicated vaccination hotlines, Lizardo said. But she added it requires extra funds for community groups to hire more people, especially since many non-profit organizations were stretched out during the pandemic.
In turn, New York-Presbyterian has set up a special online portal for local senior centers to make vaccinations for their members and has increased the number of daily places available through the portal since its opening, said Marcie Gitlin, director of the Center for Adults Living Well at the YM / YWHA of Washington Heights & Inwood. She added that her senior center and others in the area provide transportation for those who need it.
“We are very grateful that New York-Presbyterian has made special considerations for people from our area to get the vaccine,” Gitlin said.
On Thursday, it appears that New York Presbyterian also noticed the language barrier reporters from local news store The City when they visited the armor earlier this week. The City reported that no one was available to answer Spanish-speaking questions on Tuesday, although Washington Heights was a predominantly Spanish-speaking neighborhood. By Thursday afternoon, staff stationed outside the armor could be heard regularly answering questions in Spanish, and Spanish speakers leaving the site said they had no trouble communicating with health workers inside.
Yet some local elected officials took to Twitter to call out New York-Presbyterian because they had not ensured fair access from the start.
“Our hospitals should not take weeks to prioritize vaccinations for locals in hard-hit neighborhoods like Washington Heights, which, to say the least, ultimately provide the basics in language access,” Councilor Carlina Rivera tweeted, who chairs the city council’s hospital committee. “Every system needs to work to address the serious inequalities in the care of COVID-19.”
Our hospitals should not take weeks to prioritize vaccinations for locals in hard-hit neighborhoods like Washington Heights, let alone to finally provide access to the basics in language.
Each system must do its part to address the serious inequalities in the care of COVID-19. https://t.co/jnLk6TJPAg
– Carlina Rivera @ 娜 (@CarlinaRivera) 28 January 2021
People who spoke to Gothamist on Thursday about the vaccination at the armory all said they lived in Washington Heights or other parts of the city and that they had reported a stress-free experience to sign up for an appointment, their chance get and make an appointment for the second dose. Their experiences provided a stark contrast to the difficulty and confusion some New Yorkers faced in finding an appointment through city-run websites.
But some said they would not have known about the armor if it had not been referred to their doctor at New York-Presbyterian / Weill Cornell or word of mouth.
“It’s a surprise that I was able to get a vaccination for myself,” said Victor Leyn, 70, who lives in Washington Heights. “All my family tried to make an appointment for me, and they failed for several weeks in a row.”
Leyn said he was on a close appointment with his ophthalmologist earlier in the day when he was told he could get an appointment at the armory in person. He said he could be vaccinated immediately. (A security guard said people can always sign up for an appointment on the spot, but not necessarily for the same day.)
“They need to put up kites or something,” Leyn said. “Information is the key to normal life.”