Seniors, Vernon Officials: State Road To Vaccine Full Of Potholes

VERNON, CT — Lorraine Daigle and Alan Abatayo were two senior citizens who were able to get their coronavirus vaccines Friday in a town and regional health district-sponsored clinic at the Vernon Senior Center.

But that's not to say the road to the clinic was an easy one to follow.

Vernon officials were so dismayed with the process that they called a news conference to preach communication amid what they said was a cumbersome system set up by the Connecticut Department of Public Health.

They also said town staffers spent a good part of the morning calling local seniors to get them on board.

The 80-year-old Daigle said was ready to shrug the whole process off now that she was vaccinated. But she did admit the process did cause of bit of consternation. She said she had created an email just for health communications and thought they state coronavirus vaccine portal — call the Vaccine Administrative Management System, or VAMS, would be easy to access.

Then she shook her head.

"Im relieved now," she said.

"But there was a lot of back-and-forth before we were able to get here," said her granddaughter, Gina Depasquale.

Depasquale said the state system was somewhat cumbersome and confusing, but was able to get her grandmother an appointment with the help of a work colleague.

The 76-year-old Abatayo said he was able to get his vaccine only after a Vernon municipal staffer called him Friday morning.

"It was early — about 8:30 (Friday) morning," he said. "It was a big help."

Vernon Social Services Director Michelle Hill, who is overseeing the local center for the pandemic response, said it was the only thing to do. Despite phone problems that plagued the town system through Thursday, staffers were able to retrieve the 70 messages left before the clinic and get back to people.

That gave seniors like Abatayo an open door to the vaccine.

"This was the best form of government today," said Vernon Town AdministratorMichael Purcaro, a former chef of staff at the state health department. "We stand in unity with Gov. Lamont and President Biden because we want to get the vaccine to this who need it. We just had to battle a troublesome system and took matters into our own hands."

Vernon Mayor Daniel Champagne said it was a mater of streamlining the communication process.

Vernon Police Department spokesman Lt. William Meier said health professionals have stepped forward to volunteer for the clinics and more will be recruited. Hill said two officials will be meeting several times next week to further streamline the process.

Purcaro said cumbersome aspects of the state system include:

• The system assuming seniors are compute savvy
• Language
• Phone numbers with busy signals
• Limited e-mail capability

"Look, I do not want to slam the state, just the registration system," he said. "We'll keep working on ur end to get the vaccine to every eligible person."

Vernon wound up filling all 204 vaccine slots Friday.

"It took a lot of hard work to get there," Purcaro said. "We figured out out a way to manually register people to make this work and get people the vaccine. Next week, we'll work even harder to streamline the process."

The town of Vernon and Eastern Connecticut Health Network are hosting weekday virus
vaccination clinics at Rockville General Hospital.

Here are the particulars:

• Vaccinations are by appointment only for eligible recipients. No walk-ins will be accepted.
• The clinic will be open weekdays from 7 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.
• Following current public health guidelines, vaccinations for the general public are only approved for people age 75 and older.
• People can sign up for an appointment via the state’s Vaccine Administration Management System (VAMS) by visiting https://dphsubmissions.ct.gov/OnlineVaccine.