Lord Fairfax Health District begins second round of no-cost COVID vaccine to the older generation

The Lord Fairfax Health District headed by Dr. Colin Greene continued to lead the charge in delivering second COVID-19 vaccinations, including today – Monday, February 8 – at the Frederick County/Winchester Health Department in Winchester.

The Northern Shenandoah-based Health District also was first out of the gate in the area and perhaps the Commonwealth with a first-come, first-serve clinic at Boyce January 11 for “over 75s” which delivered 915 first-dose Moderna shots at the small town’s fire department’s social hall to those who lined up in 36-degree weather in the fire department parking lot for some five or more hours. Reporting for the Royal Examiner, I joined the queue at 8:20 a.m. I was the 415^th person in line to receive the jab in my left arm in the much warmer adjoining social center at 12:15 p.m. – And another 500 seniors were behind me!  According to Census figures, Boyce’s population is about 600.

Dr. Greene promised a smoother passage on Monday morning for my follow-up Moderna vaccine shot. And it was. I arrived a half hour early, found a handy parking space, and would have been first in line if I’d not politely held the door for an elderly couple to enter ahead of me (Editor’s note: Barr, a perhaps overly polite Brit, will be 88 next month!).

Regardless, having over the years developed a talent for writing, I was first to hand in my completed form, and first in Heidi Windham’s office where I rolled up my sleeve for my second dose of the Moderna vaccine. Afterward, she warned, I “might” get a reaction (I did not, the first time around) but she said, “to give it 24 hours and you’ll be okay.” Heidi, a five-year employee of the health department, said she was one of “eight or nine” colleagues giving shots that day between 8 a.m. and noon, along with similar activities at clinics in Dr. Greene’s jurisdiction.

Returning to my Front Royal home, I was greeted by a glaring Washington Post front page headline declaring: ” Confusion mars vaccine rollout in D.C. Region” – and even Virginia’s Governor Ralph Northam, himself a physician, was apologizing, blaming “bad information and changing directives from the federal government” for his state’s earlier shortcomings.

“There should have been a plan… along with funding to hire and train staff starting from last summer,” the Post quoted Donald Milton, the University of Maryland’s public health professor, as saying on behalf of all the nation’s health jurisdictions.

Virginia’s Governor Northam only learned on January 12 that the Trump White House would release its stockpile of reserved doses that state governors should begin vaccinating anyone over 65. More problems appeared, however, when lack of a reported stockpile emerged.

Eventually, our state began administering 30,000 first-time shots a day in one of its smallest townships – Boyce – among its leaders.

And so to February 8, where Dr. Greene’s Frederick/Winchester Health Department was again among those providing timely follow-up shots, the second round scheduled for Wednesday, Feb. 10.

(Editor’s note 2 – After having made his first-shot trip to Boyce to get an early jump on vaccine availability in the LFHD, Mr. Barr was directed to Winchester for his second Moderna dose, at least in part because Warren County distribution is of the Pfizer vaccine due to local provider Valley Health’s ability to store the Pfizer variety at the required ultra-low temperatures.)