Nearly 200 residents received a first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine in Harvard last week, courtesy of the state’s Executive Office of Health and Human Services. That office is currently providing guidance to owners and managers of senior affordable housing to partner with local boards of health and pharmacies to set up onsite vaccination clinics for residents and staff.
Clinics were held last week at Foxglove Apartments and Bowers Brook Apartments, and leftover doses from those clinics were used to vaccinate an additional 100 older Harvard residents at Hildreth House and Bowers Brook.
Charlotte Winchell confers with Council on Aging Director Debbie Thompson (left) during a COA COVID-19 vaccination clinic sponsored by Acton Pharmacy. Vaccination clinics were held at the Harvard COA on March 11 and at Bowers Brook on March 12 to help protect Harvard’s elderly population. (Photos by Tim Clark).
The Harvard Board of Health asked Acton Pharmacy to run the clinic at Foxglove, and Bowers Brook management asked the Ayer Family Pharmacy to run theirs. The Foxglove clinic was held March 11 and the Bowers Brook clinic was held the following day. The pharmacies provided not only the vaccines, but also the staff to administer them.
Vaccines are shipped to pharmacies in lots of 100 doses. Neither Foxglove nor Bowers Brook had enough residents and staff to use that many, so both pharmacies received permission from the state to allocate any leftover doses to the Harvard Council on Aging (COA). Board of Health Chair Sharon McCarthy notified COA Director Debbie Thompson of that decision and said the pharmacy staff could administer the leftover Foxglove doses at Hildreth House. Thompson was put in charge of coming up with a list of eligible recipients for the leftover vaccines for both Foxglove and Bowers Brook.
In an interview Tuesday, Thompson told the Press she already had a list of 50 to 60 people who had called the council over the past two months asking for help scheduling a vaccine appointment. Thompson said almost everyone on that list was either over 75 or had health issues that put them at risk for serious illness from the coronavirus, so those people became the base of the March 11 clinic list.
But Thompson said she knew there would be at least 65 doses left over from the Foxglove clinic, so on March 4 she sent an email to everyone on the Council on Aging’s mailing list, notifying them to call if they wanted to get their first dose of the vaccine at Hildreth House on March 11. Thompson said everyone who responded to the March 4 COA email was vaccinated, either at Hildreth House or Bowers Brook.
Syringes containing the Moderna vaccine ready for use.
In addition, at the end of the day on March 11, there were still 10 unused doses at Hildreth House. Thompson said the Board of Health asked School Superintendent Linda Dwight to notify eligible staff of the available doses, and there were enough responses to allow all the available vaccines to be administered. All 100 of the Bowers Brook vaccines were also used the following day, and that included 35 leftover doses that went to more residents on Thompson’s list.
Praise for pharmacies and volunteers
Both Thompson and McCarthy had high praise for the pharmacies, and for volunteers from the Harvard Ambulance Service and Fire Department who helped with check-in and monitoring, and other town employees, volunteers, and Bowers Brook management who helped to make both clinics operate smoothly. All recipients will receive second doses of the Moderna vaccine at Foxglove, Bowers Brook, and Hildreth House on April 8 and 9.
The town and the Council on Aging were the subject of quite a few negative posts on the social media site Nextdoor about the allocation of leftover vaccine. One poster looked at the email Thompson sent on March 4 and thought it had gone to only 15 recipients, prompting some residents to cry foul. Thompson told the Press the 15 recipients in the carbon copy list were staff and COA board members, but everyone on the COA mailing list, between 250 and 300 residents, was included in the blind carbon copy list.
Other posters objected to the COA using its mailing list instead of the town census to contact potential eligible residents. Thompson said the COA does not have the resources to organize such an effort. According to Town Clerk Marlene Kenney, as of Feb. 28 this year, there were 1,656 Harvard residents aged 65 and over; 445 of those were 75 or older. Thompson told the Press that if residents are not in contact with the COA or on its mailing list, they are not on the council’s radar. She emphasized that older residents should recognize that the COA is a valuable resource, not just for social events, but also for health and safety information that can be critical in times like these.
Thompson said she already has a list of residents interested in receiving the vaccine at a future Harvard clinic, should one be held, but added there are no plans at this point. To get on the COA mailing list, or to be put on the list for a possible future vaccination clinic, call the COA at 978-456-4120.
At the vaccination clinic run by the Ayer Family Pharmacy at Bowers Brook on March 11, Barry LeBlanc and Elizabeth Sirois check people into the drive up.
Pharmacist Saad Dinno of Acton Pharmacy checks in with COA Director Debbie Thompson during their COVID-19 vaccination clinic held last Thursday at Hildreth House.
At the March 12 vaccination clinic at Hildreth House, retired Fire Chief Peter Warren is greeted with a goody bag by Board of Health member Sharon McCarthy, while Jen Schoenberg of the COA sanitizes the waiting room.
