WNY'ers With Pre-Existing Conditions Hunt For Vaccine

Clarence resident, Krista Belling, has four pre-existing conditions appearing on the New York State's comorbidity list that qualify her to get vaccinated, including cancer, diabetes, and high blood pressure but Belling says she cannot get an appointment at Buffalo's only site at the University at Buffalo..

WKBW-TV reports the state began taking appointments for those with pre-existing conditions this past Sunday morning on it's website,

“The closest you can get is 80-miles from my house,” Belling declared. “I think it's kind of odd that the distribution is very skewed to the eastern part of the state."

Dr. Joseph Chow, president, Western New York Immediate Care says...

“Really it's going to be patience also as well as persistence,” Chow said he understands the frustration, but also reminds us of how many people are now eligible for the vaccine and that includes those hospitalized for other illness..
“If you take a look at all the amount of the potential patients — who may be able to get it — we are looking into the hundreds of thousands — not only in the hospital as well as out of the hospital,” explained Chow.

Chow's biggest frustration resonates within the Western New York Community...

“We just really need to wait for that supply of the vaccine to come in — certainly that's frustrating — not only for the clinicians but also for the community out there,”

As more vaccines arrive — more appointment slots should begin to open, but that's been slow to happen.

Belling says...

“They did say they were going to have some rolling distribution, but you know does that mean I have to just go every five seconds,” Belling noted.

Dr. Chow also issued a reminder that if you travel outside of our area to get vaccinated, then you would be required to travel to the same site for the second dose.