Data: Mass vaccination sites not reaching vulnerable areas

When Yale New Haven Hospital officials opened their first mass vaccination clinic at the Floyd Little Athletic Center, they thought they had found the perfect site — near the center of the city and accessible by multiple bus lines for the residents it hoped would come there.

But it didn’t take long for hospital officials to realize that while they were vaccinating lots of people at Floyd Little, few of them were from New Haven.

“We were very disturbed in the first two weeks of opening the Floyd Little site that it was predominantly white suburban people getting vaccinated,” Yale’s chief medical officer, Dr. Thomas Balcezak, said.

Floyd Little wasn’t alone. Many mass vaccination clinics — established in cities to encourage minority residents to participate — instead were drawing more white suburban residents than anticipated.

Yale New Haven Hospital and Hartford HealthCare, two of the largest vaccinators in the state, have vaccinated the state’s most vulnerable residents at similar rates, according to data they shared with CT Mirror.

Yale had administered about 45,000 first doses to the general public as of March 3, and 82 percent of those went into the arms of white people, while only 6 percent went to African Americans and 4 percent to Hispanics.

For Hartford HealthCare, as of March 1, about 78 percent of their vaccines went to white people, 5 percent to Hispanics and 4 percent to African Americans.

Those percentages closely reflect the general population of the 65-and-older age group that was eligible at the time to get vaccinated. Census data show that about 84 percent of the state’s residents older than 65 are white, about 7 percent African American and 6.4 percent Hispanic.

But some of the mass vaccination sites, such as the Floyd Little site in New Haven and another Yale opened at Mitchell College in New London, were supposed to target the more vulnerable populations in the cities, where the demographics are different.

The largest mass vaccination site at Rentschler Field, operated by Community Health Services Inc., inoculated in quantity, not to targeted populations. For weeks, it was the only mass vaccination site where people were getting appointments if they called the state’s dedicated vaccine line, whether they lived near the East Hartford location or elsewhere in the state.

Community Health Services Vice President of Communication Leslie Gianelli said since most of the appointments at the Rentschler site are booked through the federal VAMS website and the state’s dedicated vaccine line, they have not been able to access ethnicity data and are in the process of creating a program to capture the data themselves.

Both Yale and Hartford HealthCare cautioned that their data is skewed because vaccine recipients aren’t required to disclose their race, and many don’t. About 15 percent of Hartford HealthCare’s first dose recipients didn’t disclose their race when they got vaccinated. At Yale, the nondisclosure rate was about 6 percent.

At the Floyd Little site, when Yale officials realized it was mostly suburbanites getting the vaccine appointments, they made changes to the system.

“We quickly changed our policies and practices for how we get people signed up at Floyd Little,” Balcezak said. “We are trying to be nimble and change to try to accommodate the people we need to reach.”

Yale made the clinic accessible only to people who live within certain ZIP codes in New Haven, a process that the state is now asking vaccinators to adopt statewide.

State officials recently sent a list of 50 or so ZIP codes that they have identified as qualifying for the CDC’s Socially Vulnerable Index to vaccinators and told them to concentrate on getting vaccines to those areas.

Dueling Bloomfield clinics

Both hospitals are now ramping up pop-up clinics focusing on working with church leaders in the minority communities.

Hartford Health did its first church clinic last weekend at the United Methodist Church in Hartford, vaccinating 55 people. On Friday, hospital officials came to the First Cathedral Church in Bloomfield, the same place where Gov. Ned Lamont made one of his last campaign stops before his election, to vaccinate another 80.

Many of them left First Cathedral to go to another event in Hartford with the Hispanic

Health Council, where they announced a new pop-up clinic that will run every week. The first 100 people who signed up were getting vaccinated Friday.

People started lining the halls of First Cathedral about 20 minutes before the clinic opened, and William Rhoe was one of the first people in line. The 64-year-old Hartford man doesn’t have a computer and was wondering how he would get a vaccine when a friend of his wife’s told him to call First Cathedral because they were having a clinic.

“We were fortunate enough to have a friend call us,” Rhoe said as he sat for his 15-minute waiting period after getting his shot.

“I am too old to be nervous. I just wanted to get it done,” Rhoe said. “I’m relieved. It’s been a long year.”

Venita Goodwin decided to get her shot after seeing Gov. Ned Lamont get his at the church a few weeks earlier. She called First Cathedral the next day to ask if they were doing more clinics. They took her number and called last week to sign her up for Friday’s clinic.

Goodwin suffers from diabetes and has been careful not to go out much. She admitted she had concerns about the vaccines initially, but after seeing people get vaccinated without side effects, including the governor, she felt it was time.

“People are dropping like flies from this virus. I don’t want that to be me,” she said.

Get the shot

First Cathedral Pastor Michael Bailey said there’s no reason to fear the vaccine. He believes people are willing to get it if they have access to it. He pointed to the fact there were two clinics going on at his church to show there should be no excuses not to get the shot.

“We want to be a place of comfort, a place where you can come here, feel safe, feel happy, feel cared for,” Bailey said. “If the door is open, you have to walk right through it to be able to get whatever you need as far as getting the shot. Certain places you have to register — there’s also places you don’t necessarily need to register to get the shot.”

While Hartford HealthCare officials set up their clinic inside the First Cathedral Church, the staff from the Charter Oak Health Center and a few members of the Connecticut National Guard set up tents for nurses to prepare the vaccine. They set up a row of computers to register people and put out orange cones in the parking lot to mark lanes.

Charter Oak is one of four federally qualified health centers (FQHCs) that will be getting extra vaccine from the federal government under a new program. It is the third week they have run a vaccine clinic out of the church parking lot. They had used Bloomfield High School previously, but that is no longer available.

Charter Oak Communications Director T.J. Clarke said they expected to administer about 110 shots on Friday.

“We have been working with the mayor to set this up for Bloomfield residents,” Clarke said.

The FQHCs are seen as a vital part of reaching minority populations because many don’t have health care and use the facilities as their main medical provider.

“As the age limit has gotten lower, we have seen more people driving here, so we expect that it will continue to grow as the weather gets better and people more likely to have a car become eligible,” Clarke said.

Clear line of sight

In January and February, Hartford HealthCare was busy doing mobile vaccinations at six different homeless shelters in the Hartford and Windham areas. They are now turning to pop-up clinics to reach the socially vulnerable population.

Hartford HealthCare’s Chief Clinical Integration Officer Dr. James Cardon said they study their numbers to see “where we’re doing well, where we’re not doing so well and where we need to move to ensure that we’re not leaving anybody behind.”

Cardon acknowledged that racial and ethnicity numbers at the hospital’s mass vaccinations sites “were not good.” He said with all the systems people use to sign up for vaccines, it is easy for some to get lost and sometimes difficult for vaccinators to see the full picture.

“Nobody has the clear line of sight of the universe, except for potentially the state, in the end,” Cardon said. “We are continuing to parse in and look at the vaccine schedules to make sure that we’re reserving them for the populations we’re trying to target.”

Similar to Yale, Hartford HealthCare has started blocking off appointments by ZIP codes to make sure that, “unless you’re from a ZIP code the state has asked us to target,” you won’t be able to get appointments at certain sites, he said.

“You have to protect schedules somewhat and limit access to where they can schedule to make sure that you’re reserving spots for those that just aren’t savvy enough to figure out how to search the world and find myself a vaccine, or who may not have the technology to do that,” Cardon said.

At Gov. Ned Lamont’s press conference Thursday, state Chief Operating Officer Josh Geballe said that the vaccine team has been meeting regularly with providers all around the state, talking about strategies to make sure people in those critical ZIP codes have access to vaccines.

WEST HAVEN — With a pair of losses entering its rivalry game against West Haven, the Notre Dame-West Haven boys basketball team could have gone one of two ways. For coach Jason Shea, he got to see what his team was made of.

Trailing by five late in the third quarter, the Green Knights turned up their defense and closed the game on a 26-5 run to defeat previously undefeated West Haven 63-47 at Neil Cavallaro Court at West Haven High on Monday.

“We showed a lot of composure,” Shea said after his team improved to 6-2. “We were calm under pressure. We were able to execute, and we did a great job. We are playing some young guards. They played amazing tonight. I am proud of the entire team.”

Trailing 42-37 after West Haven’s Eli Blackwell hit a pair of free throws late in the third quarter, the Green Knights closed the quarter on an 8-0 run which they eventually stretched to a 52-42 lead with 1:07 gone by in the fourth quarter.

Ben Carroll and Mekhi Conner each scored four points to close out the third quarter, before three free throws and a bucket by Carroll extended the margin to 10 points early in the fourth for Notre Dame.

“I just love the way we came out and played defense tonight,” Carroll said. “If we come out and play defense like that, not many teams are going to be able to play with us.”

For the Westies, ranked ninth in the GameTimeCT Top 10, it was a tale of two halves as they were held to just 15 points in the

second half, hitting just five shots from the field, four coming in the third quarter. West Haven’s inability to build on the five-point lead proved to be the difference.

“As the leader of the program, I need to do a better job of getting these guys ready to play and I will,” West Haven coach Tyrese Sullivan said after his team fell to 5-1. “After dealing with the success we have had, we need to be ready. This one is on me. As the leader of the program, I have to have the team ready and I will. Sometimes basketball is like that. Notre Dame wanted it a little more. We had the lead and could not build on it. We did not take advantage.”

After a pair of free throws by Javaun Calhoun got West Haven within 52-44 with 6:42 remaining, the Green Knights went on a 7-0 run on buckets by Timaury Gay and Robert Oliverio for a 59-44 lead. Calhoun drained a 3-pointer to get West Haven within 12 with 2:35 remaining, but the Green Knights sealed the contest from the free throw line.

“I think they (West Haven) had an off night shooting,” Shea said. “That happens. Our guys were really scrambling out there and we did not give them much.”

Carroll finished with a game-high 23 points, including 10 in the second half. Conner had 16 points, 10 coming in the first half, and James Rawlins finished with nine points as Notre Dame had seven players in the scoring column.

“I think the two losses woke us up,” Carroll said. “I felt like we needed to have this game. The energy started to shift (end of third quarter) and we held it down on defense. I loved the energy we brought tonight.”

The Westies had three players in double figures, led by Blackwell’s 14 points. Calhoun finished with 12 points and Malcolm Duncanson had 10 in the loss, including the 1,000th of his career.

“We got punched in the eye tonight,” Sullivan said. “That happens sometimes. They got the best of us tonight. You have to credit Notre Dame.”

West Haven held a 30-24 second quarter lead on a basket by Kyle Kearson, before the Green Knights closed the first half on a 9-2 run. 3-pointers by Conner and Oliverio evened the game at 30 for the Green Knights with 1:54 left in the half.

Duncanson, who scored his 1,000th career point earlier in the contest to give West Haven a 19-14 advantage, then hit another bucket to put the Westies up 32-30. A basket by Carroll and a free throw by Matthew Dobie put Notre Dame on top by one at the half.

Carroll was on fire for the Green Knights as he scored 13 first half points, including seven in the second quarter. Carroll also connected for three 3-pointers in the opening 16 minutes.

Blackwell was just as torrid for the Westies in the opening half as he drained three 3-pointers in the first quarter, and finished with 12 points in the first half. Blackwell gave West Haven leads on three separate occasions with the 3-pointer, putting the Westies on top 5-3, 8-5 and 15-14 in the opening quarter.

PLAYER OF THE GAME Ben Carroll, ND-WH:

The senior finished with 23 points, including two buckets which gave the Green Knights the lead for good late in the third quarter.

QUOTABLE

“We got punched in the eye tonight. That happens sometimes. They got the best of us tonight. You have to credit Notre Dame.”

— West Haven coach Tyrese Sullivan