Boyce’s January 11th rollout of no-cost COVID-19 vaccine draws a crowd

The town of Boyce led the charge Monday in offering no-cost COVID-19 vaccinations to all comers, and all did come! Some 200 more than the entire population, approximately 600, of the Northern Shenandoah Valley township rolled up their sleeves in a five-hour period starting at 8 a.m. – including ME!

The day began with a two-mile traffic backup on Route 340, turning the township into a parking zone for up to a mile around Boyce Volunteer Fire Department’s Social Hall where 10 Lord Fairfax Health District staffers were aligned to handle the unanticipated large, but jocular crowd. Apart from a preponderance of locals, the lineup across and around the fire hall parking lot included people like myself who’d made the trip from adjoining counties for a jab in the upper arm.

Empty parking lot – maybe at WCGC in March during the first shutdown of government facilities to the public due to the pandemic – but no such luck for COVID-19 vaccine seekers headed to Boyce’s fire hall for Monday’s rollout for Group 1b eligible people. Royal Examiner File Photos by Roger Bianchini

At 8 a.m. I joined an already lengthy queue, standing in the 34-degree weather with thoughts of leaving because of the cold but staying for the four hours it took to reach the warm interior of the roomy and warm social hall. That part of it was easy. In groups of 10, the 415 people ahead of me, and another approximately 400 behind, registered at the door, lined up for another 20 minutes, enjoying about five minutes with a nurse, a shot in the upper arm, and a date to return 28 days hence for another shot of the Moderna vaccine.

“Even at the weekly bingo,” one local man in line commented, “there has never been so many elderly people (75 and over was the rule for 1b eligibility) congregated in our town’s history!”

Drawing a crowd – the potential of immunity to the dominant strain of the COVID-19 bug drew an estimated 800 people to normally tranquil Boyce in Clarke County on Monday.

My new friend in line, George Wiltshire of Boyce’s Valley View Farm, helped us both out by doing a hot coffee run while I saved his space in line. We swapped stories, culminating in his confiding to two marriages (me, “too”, I said) and his roots going back to 1612 when his forebears arrived from England. Interesting, particularly to this U.K. immigrant who arrived in America in 1961. I believe our experience was shared in a number of new friendships formed in the queue. And George and I promised to stay in touch.

We all were in Plan 1b, the over 75s, with precedence given to law enforcement, education staff, food and agriculture workers, and other essential work groups. Staff reported that non-publicized, law enforcement and others received their shots last Friday in Front Royal and other locations. Inquiries left over the weekend with Warren Memorial Hospital were unanswered, but the Front Royal hospital is expected to provide shots this week.

The Lord Fairfax Health District serves residents in the City of Winchester and Clarke, Frederick, Page, Shenandoah and Warren Counties.