SALISBURY — Brian Mattiello of Charlotte Hungerford Hospital told a Facebook audience that Connecticut is receiving some 200,000 doses of COVID-19 vaccine weekly and that the supply will eventually exceed demand.
Mattiello, regional vice president of strategy and community development for Hartford HealthCare (including Charlotte Hungerford Hospital in Torrington) and Dr. Henri Lamothe, also of Charlotte Hungerford, joined state Rep. Maria Horn (D-64) for a live discussion of vaccines on Facebook on Friday evening, March 26.
Mattiello said getting the vaccines out to the public is “a massive undertaking.”
He provided a list of six locations in the Torrington-Winsted area for vaccinations.
• Hartford HealthCare is holding vaccination clinics at the state armory at 153 South Main St. in Torrington. To sign up, use your existing MyChartPLUS account, or create one at www.MyChartPLUS.org, or call Hartford HealthCare at 860-827-7690 or 833-943-5721.
• The state Department of Public Health website (dphsubmissions.ct.gov/OnlineVaccine) will get individuals registered with the Vaccine Administration Management System (VAMS), which will in turn guide the individual through the appointment process (including the CVS pharmacy in Winsted).
• Torrington Area Health District (www.tahd.org) will also register people with VAMS.
• The Walgreens locations in Torrington, Litchfield and North Canaan are providing vaccines. It is necessary to create an account at www.walgreens.com.
Walmart in Torrington is offering vaccine appointments. Again, it is necessary to have a Walmart account. Go to www.Walmart.com/covidvaccine for details.
And Stop & Shop supermarkets in Torrington and Winsted are offering vaccinations. Go to www.stopandshop/covid-vaccine.
Mattiello said the Walgreens locations are each vaccinating about 20 people a day, and the Walmart in Torrington about 40 per day.
He said appointments are necessary for a number of reasons, including getting the proper second dose. “You can’t get one Pfizer and one Moderna,” he said, referring to the two two-shot vaccines.
And he said locations are booking appointments only three weeks ahead. “Supply matters,” he said. “We don’t want to have to cancel appointments.”
Mattiello referred to a mobile clinic at the Emergency Services Center in Falls Village last week, which was aimed at certain residents of Falls Village and North Canaan.
There have been clinics at Charlotte Hungerford for specific demographic groups, as well as in Winsted.
Horn noted that people in the far north and west part of the Northwest Corner have experienced difficulty in getting appointments, and then asked about side effects.
Mattiello said side effects include sore arms, mild temperature, body ache; they generally last 24 hours.
Lamothe spent a few minutes at the start of the Facebook event debunking vaccine myths: that the vaccines cause infertility, that there is a microchip in the vaccine, that the vaccine changes a person’s DNA, that the side effects are deadly, and that people who have had COVID-19 and recovered don’t need to be vaccinated.
On the last two, Lamothe said there are definitely side effects. “But nobody’s dying from them.”
And reinfection is possible for people who had COVID-19 and recovered. “So you should still get it. It will boost the immune system that much more.”
Which vaccine is best? The two-shot Pfizer and Moderna vaccines, or the one-shot Johnson & Johnson?
Lamothe said, “The best vaccine is the one you can get.”
