Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer praised Millie Glaberman as his inspirational high school teacher. When he was Borough President, Scott Stringer proclaimed March 3, 2010, Millie Glaberman appreciation day. In 2018, Senator Brad Hoylman named Millie Glaberman New York State United Teachers Retiree of the year. But Millie Glaberman, community activist and teacher, has not managed to get a vaccine in her 10th decade.
Millie’s plight is a sad illustration of how New York continues to struggle to get the vaccination to those in need.
Jean-Daniel Noland appealed for help at the Executive Committee of Manhattan Community Board 4 (MCB4) last night. “My friend Millie Glaberman — the longest-serving member of this community board and in her 10th decade. She’s pretty savvy and still goes to work for the union. She was Chuck Schumer’s teacher and she cannot get a shot. This is particularly disturbing to me.”
Members of MCB4 shared the frustration at the roll out. District Manager Jesse Bodine said: “There’s this continuous dance between getting enough supply to provide and then, when you don’t have the supply, you don’t have the infrastructure to prepare people to get ready to get the supply.”
Executive committee member, Joe Restuccia, has been working with the Ryan Chelsea-Clinton in Hell’s Kitchen on supply issues. He shared: “It looks like the supply is going to start to increase in the next coming weeks. Now the challenge is going to be that there’s not going to be enough locations, which is totally ridiculous.”
“This reminds me of when people are very hungry somewhere and they come with their helicopters and drop the food and then everybody tries to grab something. That’s exactly what it’s like,” said committee member Christine Berthet. “You’re supposed to stay up 12 hours to click on all that stuff. Otherwise, you don’t get a space. It’s just insane.”
We have reached out for comment to Senator Schumer, Senator Hoylman and Comptroller Stringer for comment and will update the story.
UPDATE: Millie got an appointment.
Opening up all these vaccine sites in other NY areas, specifically for certain zip codes while we in the 100xx zip codes are shut out. Yankee Stadium and multiple others for the Bronx for example. What is going on at Javits? They are only doing second dose now, and who knows what region those people came from. Truly frustrating.
I want to know how Clinton housing development was able to get the Ryan center to vaccinate their tenants and some of them are not 65 and older. They were vaccinating everyone including those under 65. No wonder were running out and people 65 and older can’t even get an appointment.
Hi! I’m Lauren from the Community Cultivation Department at Clinton Housing. I’ve been coordinating our vaccine events with Ryan Health. I’m so glad you asked about how this partnership came to be and who is being vaccinated. CHDC provides a broad range of affordable housing for tenants of various ages and circumstances. Our vaccine initiative began as a way to protect our most at-risk tenants – those referred by the Dept. of Health and Mental Hygiene, who were included in Phase 1a of vaccine eligibility. Ryan Health is always willing to help our community and didn’t hesitate to partner with us for this. In our congregate supportive housing buildings, many adult tenants live in apartments with separate bedrooms but common kitchens and bathrooms that may put tenants at greater risk. There are traditional apartments in those buildings as well with individuals and families of all ages. In January, when people 65 and over became eligible in Phase 1b, residents and staff of supportive congregate housing also became eligible. That’s why you may have seen people under 65 being vaccinated at our locations. Among others, Phase 1b also included transit workers, school staff, grocery workers and people living in shelters. Because it changes so often, I’m finding that many people are not aware of who’s included in each phase. There have been two expansions to Phase 1b in February alone! Now taxi drivers, restaurant workers, food delivery people, and people who have conditions like heart disease, diabetes, cancer and weakened immune systems are eligible. Here’s a link to the NYC eligibility page: https://www1.nyc.gov/site/doh/covid/covid-19-vaccine-eligibility.page . Take a look – it’s a huge list! You said it seems like we’re vaccinating everyone, and I really wish that were the case. The truth is that we’re having trouble getting people signed up. Along with our social services partner, Hudson Guild, we’re doing outreach to our eligible tenants and are being met with a real reluctance to take the vaccine. Hundreds of tenants have been contacted but we’ve distributed about 75 shots so far. I just learned that CHDC has offered use of some of our locations as a way to expand overall NYC vaccine distribution. Our first priority though is to help to get our most vulnerable population vaccinated as soon as possible. If you know anyone who lives in our buildings, please encourage them to participate in one of our vaccination events. Hopefully, this will all be behind us soon. Thank you again for your comment and for the opportunity to share info. Feel free to contact me at lsuperville@clintonhousing.org.