Three Westchester mayors push for their own vaccination sites

The mayors of three Westchester cities are pushing for New York state to establish Covid-19 mass vaccination sites in their municipalities.

Mayors Mike Spano of Yonkers, Noam Bramson of New Rochelle and Shawyn Patterson-Howard of Mount Vernon agreed that rather than concentrating on central sites such as the Westchester County Center in White Plains, the state needs to bring vaccination sites to people living in high-density, urban centers such as their cities.

“There’s a tremendous population that’s crammed into a few square miles,” Spano said during a virtual conversation on Covid-19 that was hosted by Westchester County Executive George Latimer.

“Many of the people, the families, just won’t travel to White Plains. It’s important for us to get a facility here in Yonkers and I have asked, sent a letter obviously to our governor, to the administration, asking that they make something available.”

Spano said that Yonkers has facilities that can be used as vaccination sites.

“We’re here, we’re ready, we’re willing. A lot of it has to do with supplies so I hope the supplies are coming and we’re able to get something up and started,” Spano said.

He also said an education program is needed to convince people of various demographics that the vaccine is safe and effective.

“Yonkers has 420 or so firefighters and all were allowed to go out and get the vaccine and from what I understand only 100 took the vaccine,” Spano said. “That’s 25%. We have to make sure people are aware that this vaccine is safe and safe for them to use because there is still a very large segment of the population that is afraid of this vaccine. For some reason they don’t think it’s safe.”

Bramson said, “The vaccine is here, it’s safe, it’s effective, there’s every reason to hope that as 2021 progresses more people will be vaccinated; we’ll come closer to approaching herd immunity and there’s reason to be hopeful that we’ll get back to something resembling normal life.”

Bramson acknowledged that the vaccine rollout has not gone as smoothly as had been forecast.

“Supplies are still restrained, nowhere close to the demand,” Bramson said. “Many people seeking the vaccine have found the process to be frustrating so it does require a good deal of patience and persistence, but I do think, specially with an administration in Washington that shows every sign of being committed to a competent national Covid strategy, there’s reason to expect supplies will ramp up.

“Just as the testing process back in the spring started out a little bit chaotic and eventually matured into a more efficient predictable system, I think we’ll see that with vaccination as well. So, I choose to be optimistic of our course.”

Bramson said that wearing masks, social distancing and other practices that have been shown to slow the spread of the virus will continue to be necessary.

Latimer said that although the number of Covid cases has been increasing in Westchester recently with deaths now topping 1,800, the county currently has plenty of hospital capacity and the situation is far from the crisis proportions being seen in areas such as Los Angeles County in California.

“The advancement of the virus right now is running a fast race and it’s the distribution of the vaccines that will be the offset,” Latimer said. “The system of vaccination distribution has been set up in our area by the state of New York. They’ve set the rules for who’s eligible to be vaccinated and they’ve set up the places to vaccinate and they’re responsible for delivering the product that they receive from the federal government.”

Patterson-Howard took the opportunity to again express her opposition to the announced closing of Montefiore Mount Vernon Hospital.

“Montefiore initially was a site, a point of distribution for the state for the vaccine but they have since lost their status as a vaccination site due to several breaks in New York state protocol,” Patterson-Howard said.

“As we know Montefiore has been talking about closing that location since October of 2019. They continue to transfer out services; they do not have an ICU (intensive care unit) in Mount Vernon.”

Patterson-Howard said that Westchester’s cities need a coordinated plan to bring vaccinations into the region and she is hoping to push for a drive-thru vaccination site in Mount Vernon.

“We all need vaccines desperately to slow down the progression of this,” Patterson-Howard said.

Dr. Dial Hewlett, an infectious disease specialist with the county’s health department, also participated in the virtual conversation and said that data is showing that rates of infection among children in school is actually lower than rates in the community.

“Data seem to show that children are getting the infections not from attending school; they actually are getting the infections from other people that are in their households,” Hewlett said. “In many of our underserved communities, as you know, the children are in multigenerational households. They’re living in multifamily units where it is very difficult to quarantine and isolate and quite often the school actually is forming shelter for them.”

Hewlett also said that it appears as if the current vaccines will be effective against the new strains of the virus that have recently been detected.

“Most of the coronaviruses have one thing in common: the spike protein. And we’ve actually heard presentations from the chief medical officer of (vaccine manufacturer) Moderna and they’ve said they’re looking at this and they’re doing testing to make sure that the vaccine will be effective,” Hewlett said. He said that studies also are underway to try to determine whether people who are vaccinated will no longer be able to carry and transmit the virus.

“We are hoping that the vaccine will actually eradicate carriage, but until we actually have the answer to that question those of us that have been vaccinated still should be observing the usual precautions in terms of the face masks and other things,” Hewlett said.