LACKAWANNA, N.Y. — Pop-up COVID-19 vaccine clinics in Western New York continued Friday in Niagara Falls and Lackawanna.
In the Falls, Niagara Falls Memorial Medical Center held a clinic at the Doris Jones Building. In Lackawanna, a clinic was held at Second Baptist Church.
These events were held as 2 On Your Side continues to ask for local demographic data on who is getting vaccinated.
Statewide health data shows there are shortfalls in getting White and Black hospital workers vaccinated, and Black and Latino seniors and essential workers getting the shot.
Locally, we don't have any of that information.
Erie County regularly releases demographic information on COVID cases, so we checked with the county on vaccine demographics. 2 On Your Side was told the state Department of Health would have this information; we've requested it but haven't received it.
Is it a little frustrating to not have that information at this point?
"It is frustrating it's challenging," according to Rev. Mark Blue of Second Baptist Church, who sits on the state's Vaccine Equity Task Force.
He says demographic information on who's getting vaccinated is critical in defeating the coronavirus.
"So, I believe we are making some headway. There's a lot of activity that's going on to compile that data, and once that data is compiled, we need to follow the science and follow the statistics of that data," Blue said.
Is there any indication as to when that type of demographic information is going to be released?
"Well, compiling that data is one of the things that takes time, but we do have some of that information already," Blue said. "But there's still more gaps that need to be filled."
People in the general public might be wondering, when could I possibly be sprinkled in? Is there any indication on that?
"Once we have more vaccines and once they're being distributed, then more of the general population can receive it," Blue said.
And that is expected to take months, because of lack of supply. On Friday, Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced that starting February 15, the majority of unused doses at hospitals will be reallocated to people with underlying health issues. We hope to learn more about all this from state officials.
As for the pop-up clinic at Second Baptist Church, the clinic was being run by Catholic Health.
About 350 people in this immediate area in Phase 1a and 1b were vaccinated.
Blue says that information about the pop-up clinic being held here got out to the community all week, for example, through robocalls. It turns out the message went out farther than that.
Reverend Blue says people have been calling from as far away as Batavia and Fredonia trying to get an appointment. Appointments are filled here, but there have been some no shows.
It’s possible people calling in could've gotten vaccinated.