The COVID vaccine pipeline: Virginians flock to NC for shots

Elizabeth City, North Carolina — Anxious for the coronavirus vaccine, a pipeline of Hampton Roads residents crossed the border into North Carolina to get shots after being unable to do so in Virginia.

Word spread quickly over the past few weeks that Hampton Roads residents were getting inoculated — no questions asked — on a first-come, first-served basis at vaccination clinics in rural North Carolina towns.

As more Virginians began flooding the clinics, North Carolina health department officials got more restrictive, announcing that only excess vaccines would be given to Virginians after all local residents had been served.

By Friday evening, it got even tighter. The health department covering those regions said it’s receiving fewer vaccines next week and will only serve historically marginalized and underserved communities.

Michael Payment, chairman of the Currituck County Board of Commissioners, said it has been tough to handle the swarms of Virginians over the past couple of weeks and hopes the crowds will die down so the local governments can focus on vaccinating local residents.

“We are going to have to start prioritizing North Carolinians because we don’t have the doses anymore,” Payment said.

On Monday and Tuesday, Virginia Beach friends Cookie Rightmeyer, 78, and Denise Koh, 61, waited outside clinics for several hours. Neither had been able to secure a vaccine appointment in Virginia, so they decided to try North Carolina.

On Tuesday, they parked in a lot at Elizabeth City Regional Airport. John Baiocco of Chesapeake was in the car next to them, hoping to get a vaccine for his 83-mother, June, who lives in an independent living facility in Chesapeake. He has registered her for the vaccine in Virginia, but she has not yet received an appointment.

“It’s a life or death situation,” John Baiocco said. “An hour drive is nothing.”

This week, those running the clinic had given occupants of both cars vaccination forms and told them to return an hour before the clinic closed to find out if any vaccines were left.

They sat in their cars until 2:45 p.m., when they hurried across the street to line up alongside dozens of Virginians hoping to receive a vaccine. As they neared a gated entrance, a law enforcement officer told them no shots were left. Rightmeyer said a Virginia-plated car in front of them was the last to be waived in.

Had they decided to go to another location about 22 miles away in Hertford on Tuesday, they may have gotten the vaccine.

“Another unsuccessful day,” Koh said as she and Rightmeyer drove away.

Koh rolled down her window and told the Baioccos, who were behind them in line, that they were turned away. Soon, the Baioccos exited the line and left the facility disappointed, too.

Rightmeyer concluded they had missed their window for easy access to the vaccine in North Carolina. The week prior, she said she knew of six Virginia residents who received the vaccine at North Carolina clinics without waiting in a parking lot until the end of the day.

Tipped off by a friend, Richard Doummar, a 61-year-old attorney, was one of the first from Virginia Beach to receive a vaccine in North Carolina.

He said he received the vaccine around lunchtime on Jan. 21 in Maple. He filled out a vaccination form, requesting his personal information and address. He didn’t have to wait until the end of the day. Within a minute of pulling into the parking lot, he said he rolled down his window and was given the shot in his arm.

He said he didn’t see anyone with Virginia plates in cars next to him, but he told several friends about it. Since then, he said he has heard from at least 15 who have been vaccinated in North Carolina, too.

He said he was motivated to try to get a shot in North Carolina because he wants to feel safe with his 101-year-old mother, who also has received her first shot.

“They had plenty of doses and they wanted to make sure they gave them out,” Doummar said. “If a state nearby has extra doses, why would they not share it? Why throw them away?”

Amy Underhill, a spokesperson for Albemarle Regional Health Services, the health department that oversees the clinics, did not respond to questions about why Virginians were given vaccines regardless of age or prioritization category.

She also would not address why her agency had excess vaccines — or how many Virginians and North Carolinians had been vaccinated at ARHS clinics.

What Underhill would say is that local residents are being prioritized first.

“Our vaccines are designated for NC residents,” Underhill wrote in an email. “While we cannot refuse service, we will only serve residents from other states, including Virginia after all of the NC residents have been served, and only if we have vaccines available at that time.”

Underhill, however, said ARHS will administer second doses to Virginians who have already received a first dose in North Carolina. This was welcome news to Virginia Beach Mayor Bobby Dyer and Vice Mayor Jim Wood, who feared Beach residents might not be able to receive a second shot in North Carolina. Dyer said he was prepared to ask Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam to help those residents get second doses if North Carolina did not agree to provide them.

North Carolina’s Health and Human Services Department’s website said the CDC instructed states not to refuse non-residents since the vaccine supply is coming from a federal resource.

But Sarah Lewis, a spokesperson for the department, said those vaccinated are expected to meet the current eligibility requirements, which include healthcare workers and individuals 65 or older. Lewis said she was not aware if ARHS’s distribution practices ventured outside those guidelines, and she did not respond to further questions via email.

When asked if Northam was aware that Virginians have been vaccinated in North Carolina, Alena Yarmosky, a spokesperson for the governor, said she could not address it. But she pointed to a New York Times report that said Virginia had administered at least one shot to 9.1% of its population compared to 8.3% of people in North Carolina.

“Virginia has vaccinated a higher percentage of our population than North Carolina and has also administered more of our distributed doses,” Alena Yarmosky, a spokesperson for Northam, wrote in an email on Friday.

Wood said he thinks Virginia Beach should be receiving more vaccines so he appreciates that neighboring North Carolina is helping.

“There’s a woefully inadequate supply of vaccine in Virginia,” Wood said. “Everybody needs to get the vaccine. I don’t fault anybody for going to North Carolina at all.”

The wait for vaccines continues

Rightmeyer, the 78-year-old woman from Virginia Beach, said she has been on the wait list to receive a vaccine at Virginia Beach’s Convention Center for two weeks. While many of her friends have received appointments, she has not.

“I just want to get the vaccine so I feel safer,” Rightmeyer said. “I barely go anywhere — just to the grocery store and to get prescriptions.”

Rightmeyer said she has spent most of the last year at home alone. She hasn’t been able to spend much time with her two daughters and four grandchildren since the pandemic began. On Mother’s Day last year, her daughter and two grandchildren, who live in North Carolina, came to visit with masks on for about an hour. That same daughter came to help Rightmeyer after she had surgery in October. But she hasn’t been able to see her other two grandchildren and daughter who live in Florida.

“This past Christmas was the first Christmas I have spent in my entire life without one member of my family,” Rightmeyer said.

John Baiocco, 58, said he, too, hasn’t been able to get his mother an appointment even though she has a high risk of of developing a serious case of COVID-19 if she caught it.

June Baiocco’s retirement community, Lighthouse Pointe in Chesapeake, has encouraged families to seek out the vaccine independently while the center waits to hear if it can secure shots for residents on site, said David McGowan, the facility’s general manager. The facility is designated under Phase 1b of the vaccine rollout, he said.

“Every day, we are reaching out to state decision makers and local county health departments, grocery store pharmacies and any other provider that we become aware of,” McGowan said in a letter to residents on Feb. 3.

John Baiocco said he knew he might not be able to get a shot for his mom in North Carolina, but he felt he had to try.

“I felt I wasn’t doing enough to secure the vaccine for my mother,” Baiocco said. “If she got the virus, it could be deadly for her.”

Alissa Skelton, 757-995-9043, alissa.skelton@pilotonline.com.