Ready, set, inoculate; town and school ready for vaccine distribution Shelter Island School. (Credit: Ambrose Clancy)
Approximately 500 Islanders will get their first COVID-19 inoculations Friday at Shelter Island School where the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine is to be administered.
Town and school officials have been working in the past few days to get the approval for an on-Island administration of the vaccine and lining up appointments for people.
This round of inoculations will go only to Shelter Island residents, including seniors 65 and older, first responders, employees who work with the public, teachers, grocery store employees and restaurant staffs who are eligible and want the vaccine.
This illustration, created at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), reveals ultrastructural morphology exhibited by coronaviruses. (Credit: Courtesy illustration)
Shelter Island residents are still on hold when it comes to having COVID-19 vaccinations in town, joining other East End communities that have generally not had much if any vaccine to administer.
The Suffolk County Department of Health Services shows 42 cases on Shelter Island, but Police Chief Jim Read has said a number of people on the Island reported their permanent addresses elsewhere. He believes the actual number is more than 50 cases.
The nearest sites for vaccinations have been Riverhead and Stony Brook. However, many of those who have been able to get vaccinations in Riverhead have been told they can’t yet sign up for a second inoculation, leaving them in limbo if there is an extensive break between the first and second shots.
Shelter Island Town Hall (Credit: Tara Smith)
Supervisor Gerry Siller got a call Tuesday from Dr. Josh Potter of the Medical Center that a limited number of doses of COVID-19 vaccine were to be made available at Greenport’s Peconic Landing this week.
Dr. Potter also called Senior Services Director Laurie Fanelli to let her know that a list being compiled of those Island seniors unable to travel to get inoculated might be able to get appointments.
But if an appointment hasn’t been made, it’s too late, Mr. Siller said. Nonetheless, any senior not already on the Senior Center’s list should be sure to sign up there.
To the Editor:
In the last year I have seen both the Left and Right take their allegiances to dangerous levels to appease their bases. Maybe it’s time they both started looking out for the rest of us.
I saw hordes of people, some of them armed, a few months ago rioting and looting, burning and bullying, in support of the Black Lives Matter movement and calls to defund the police. And the Right, correctly, decried this as dangerous and barbaric.
On Jan. 6, I saw hordes of people, some of them armed, taking over the Capitol of this country in protest of the outcome of an election that has been controversial, yes, but by all legitimate accounts relatively free and fair.