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VALLEY STREAM
Vol. 32 No. 8
Residents share their vaccine woes Colgan managed to get her shots in January, at a hub site at Hillcrest High School in Queens. Last Sunday, New York state With New York City sites now again expanded the pool of peo- restricted to city residents only, ple eligible to receive a coronavi- however, Colgan was struggling rus vaccine, this time to those to get a vaccine appointment for suffering from diseases such as her daughter, who recently joined cancer and chronic the Malverne Fire conditions such as Department Ambuobesity and hyperlance Cor ps. Altension. Some 11 milthough her daughter lion New Yorkers — is scheduled to take more than half the her EMS certificastate’s population — tion in March, Colnow qualify for an g an said, she is inoculation. unable to join ambuBut with doses lance ride-alongs in still in short supply, the meantime to gain only about 833,000 experience until she people in the state is inoculated. have been fully inocFor appointments ulated since the first outside the city right vaccine to prevent DAViD n o w, s h e s a i d , Covid-19 in the Unit“there’s nothing.” SABAtiNo ed States was Scott Wheeler, a approved in Decem- Valley Stream village sanitation ber, according to the worker, said he had Centers for Disease tried many times a day for the Control and Prevention. In Valley past three weeks to schedule an Stream, residents described their appointment on the state website. frustration as they grapple with So far, the nearest vaccination scattershot appointment avail- location at which he has been ability, overloaded state websites able to secure an appointment is and uneven dealings with local in Potsdam, 350 miles upstate. pharmacies. “As an essential employee who As a support staff member at has worked every day througha school in Valley Stream, Mary Continued on page 4
By PEtER BElFioRE pbelfiore@liherald.com
t
Courtesy Lissa Nelson
VAllEY StREAmER NiCholAS Schiano celebrated receiving his first dose of the coronavirus vaccine just two days after his 98th birthday. With him were, from left, LIJ Valley Stream nurse Oneca Fawcett, employee health manager Lissa Nelson and administrative assistant Viviana Santiago.
A first step toward freedom
At 98, Valley Stream veteran gets vaccine dose By PEtER BElFioRE pbelfiore@liherald.com
Valley Streamer Nicholas Schiano turned 98 on Jan. 29. Two days later, the World War II veteran received his first dose of the coronavirus vaccine. While volunteers from Holy Name of Mary Catholic Church, where he’s a parishioner, visit him, along with neighbor Lissa Nelson, an employee health manager at Long Island Jewish Valley
Stream, his son, Tom, reported that his father is eager to get out of his Rockaway Parkway home and back to his morning ritual of three-mile walks with friends through Hendrickson Park and breakfast afterward at Mitchell’s Restaurant. Now hard of hearing, Schiano spoke through his son, who lives in Texas. “When the coronavirus hit, we forced him to knock that off and stay home,” Tom said of his father’s social habits. “He’s
really regretted that he hasn’t been able to do that. Some of his friends continue to call him, which is very nice.” Schiano has lived in Valley Stream for 67 years, since he moved there from his native Brooklyn. Before that, in 1943, he joined the Ar my and trained as a medic at Walter Reed General Hospital, serving at a field hospital in Britain during World War II. The grave injuries he witnessed Continued on page 14
he whole distribution of the vaccine has been haphazard, disorganized and misleading.