Canton facility rolls out vaccine
Nursing home staff, residents get shots to combat COVID-19
Teresa Michaud watched some of her friends die of COVID19 last spring inside the Cherry Brook Healthcare Center, so when news came that a vaccine was available she was ready to roll up her sleeve.
“For some reason it (COVID) skipped me and my roommate,” Michaud said in a phone interview Monday just moments after she got her first Pfizer vaccine shot inside the Canton facility.
“I was anxious to get the vaccine and to get it done,” Michaud said. “I know it (COVID) isn’t going to disappear overnight but I can’t wait to return to normal.”
When CVS employees drove into Cherry Brook Monday morning with containers full of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine it marked the mass rollout across the country to vaccinate all nursing home residents and staff and hopefully curb the devastation the virus has brought to elderly residents in facilities across the country.
CVS officials said they expected to begin vaccinations in 12 states on Monday after beginning the process last week, including one in West Hartford.
At Cherry Brook all but one
of the 80 residents had consented to be vaccinated, while about 50% of the staff stood in line to get their shots Monday. Cherrybrook is COVID-free right now, but in the spring 55 out of 74 residents were infected and 24 died.
One of them was Elizabeth MacLean, a certified nurse’s assistant at Cherry Brook for more than 20 years.
“I was scared but figured what did I have to lose, especially after what we went through in the spring. There was a lot of loss, a lot of crying,” MacLean said.
MacLean got COVID at Cherrybrook in late April when the virus was running rampant through longterm care facilities across the state. COVID has hit the state’s nursing homes hard with more than 3,000 deaths since March.
“I started not feeling well right here at work, just didn’t feel right and I had a fever so I went home,” said Maclean, who quarantined for two weeks .
“It was rough and that’s why I’m getting the vaccine I wouldn’t want anybody else going through it,” MacLean said. “I didn’t really recovered until July I felt tired all of the time.”
Most of the state’s 213 nursing homes have chosen CVS to do the vaccinations. The federal government through Operation Warp Speed made a deal with CVS and Walgreen’s to vaccinate all nursing home residents and staff across the country.
In Connecticut several facilities are expected to start vaccines this week, although many have early January dates for their first rounds. They must schedule three clinics at each facility to ensure that everyone gets an opportunity to get two shots.
Both the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines require a second booster shot anywhere from two to four weeks after the first one.
At Cherry brook that nurse was Leslie Vento, who was the first person to get vaccinated Monday morning.
“My first though was yahoo, I’m going to get it,” Vento said. “I went back and forth about it only because we don’t know what the long-term effects may be but I need to protect my patients and also my family.”
Vento said many of the residents were excited to get the vaccine and maybe start getting their lives back. Vento survived COVID herself back in May. She has no doubt she contracted it at work.
“I had chills like I had never had before, fatigue, couldn’t taste anything,” Vento said. “There was so much COVID around back then it was inevitable I was going to get it.”
In a press release, CVS officials said they expect to vaccinate up to 4 million residents and staff at over 40,000 long-term care facilities around the country. CVS Health expects to complete its long-term care facility vaccination effort in approximately 12 weeks.
“Today’s rollout is the culmination of months of internal planning and demonstrates how the private sector can use its expertise to help solve some of our most critical challenges,” said Larry J. Merlo, president and chief executive officer of CVS Health. “I’m grateful for the herculean efforts of everyone involved, including our health care professionals who will be deployed throughout the country to bring peace of mind to longterm care facility residents, staff and their loved ones.”
Nann Huntington, a housekeeper at Cherrybrook for 14 years said she was grateful to get vaccinated Monday and hopeful it will stop the virus. She knows exactly what she is going to do once she is fully vaccinated.
“It has been really difficult. We’ve been through a lot and to have a vaccine it’s just amazing,” Huntington said. “I can’t wait to see my grandkids again. It feels like forever since I’ve seen them.”