Non-Queens residents turned away from Citi Field vaccine site despite directive from NYC hospital system
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A COVID vaccine site opened for Queens residents at Citi Field last month. Non-Queens residents have been able to book appointments online but have been turned away upon arrival. Mayoral Photography/Flickr
By David Brand
Update: March 15 at 12:33 p.m. — Health + Hospitals workers have begun allowing non-Queens residents to receive their vaccines at Citi Field after confusion had prevented people who booked appointments online from getting their doses Friday and Saturday.
Several non-Queens residents who managed to sign up for appointments at the Citi Field vaccine clinic were denied their doses — and sometimes escorted away by police — Friday and Saturday, despite guidance from Health + Hospitals officials who said that anyone could get their shot if they booked their slot online.
A bug on the city’s updated vaccine registration website has allowed non-Queens residents to register for appointments at Citi Field without providing a zip code, though the shots are supposed to go to people who live in Queens or who work as taxi drivers and food service workers.
Health + Hospitals spokesperson Julie Bolcer told the Eagle that anyone who scheduled an appointment at the ballpark and qualified under state eligibility rules would be allowed to get their shots. H+ H runs the Citi Field site.
“We are working to fix this issue with the website as soon as possible and in the meantime anyone who has an appointment and is otherwise eligible to be vaccinated is not being turned away,” Bolcer said.
Bolcer reiterated that guidance following publication of this article. A staff member for H + H and a Manhattanite with a Citi Field appointment Sunday said medical workers had resumed providing shots to non-Queens residents who booked online.
That was not the case Friday night and into Saturday morning, however, according to five people who contacted the Eagle after visiting or working at the ballpark.
A Health + Hospitals staff member who asked to remain anonymous so as not to get fired said that police were called “multiple” times after people with appointments demanded to get their doses.
“We turned away around 30-40 people and had people crying and the cops took people away,” they said.
Adam Wilkes, a private school instructor from East Harlem, said he was turned away after he showed up for his 4:15 a.m. appointment Saturday. He said he provided a screenshot of his appointment confirmation and that medical workers found his name in their system, but staff told him they were under strict instructions not to allow people from outside Queens to get the vaccine.
It was only later in the morning that Wilkes read an Eagle article contradicting what the medical staff told him.
“It was astonishing because this happened hours after the article came out,” Wilkes said.
Staff, he said, referred to the website “glitch” but did not know about the Health + Hospitals order to allow non-borough residents to get vaccinated if they made their appointments online.
“It just seems so ambiguous because if you get a manager at a certain time who doesn’t know, then they tell you you can’t get it,” he said. “Every other person was getting turned away.”
Dr. Lori Hoepner, a public health professor from Brooklyn, accompanied her husband to the ballpark for his 12:30 a.m. appointment Saturday. Hoepner said she urged medical workers to give her husband his dose and showed them the Eagle article. They relented and gave him the vaccine, she said.
“I refused to leave and started loudly reading your article out loud to all of them,” she said.
Hoepner said she felt bad for staff members who have to deal with frustrated New Yorkers and recommended that H + H do a better job educating medical workers about the guidance.
“They didn’t sign up to get yelled at,” she said. “I think the problem is miscommunication. It’s conflicting information.”
Two other Brooklyn residents with Friday night or Saturday morning vaccine appointments said they too were denied their doses because of their home address, even though they signed up online. Both asked not to be identified.
Health + Hospitals did not respond to multiple requests for comment Saturday.
Non-Queens residents with Citi Field appointments began sharing their concerns about the website issue on social media earlier this month.
Turbovax, a Twitter account that aggregates and tweets open vaccine appointments in New York City, cautioned New Yorkers about the potential problem March 9.
“FYI if you are a non-Queens resident who picked up a Citi Field slot yesterday, you may be turned away,” Turbovax tweeted March 9. “The new Vax4NYC website doesn't restrict people with ineligible zips from booking Citi Field appts. This was not the case on the old H+H site.”
If you are a non-Queens resident with a Citi Field vaccine appointment, and you are not a food service worker or TLC driver, contact us to share your experience. Email David Brand at david@queenspublicmedia.com or send him a message on Twitter @DavidFBrand
