February 19, 2021: Update on COVID-19 Vaccine Distribution

Dear Colleagues,

The Armory site is open for scheduled appointments, but employees in 1A should plan to come next week and not this week due to limited supply from the winter storm. A reminder that the Armory site is always closed on Monday.

CUIMC Employees

  • Employees of Columbia, Weill Cornell and NYP who are in category 1a (patient facing) now receive the first dose of the vaccine at the Armory at the hours posted here COVID Vaccine Information page.
  • Second doses of the Pfizer vaccine are being administered to CUIMC employees in the Myrna Daniels Auditorium today, Friday 2/19 only, during the hours of 6 am to 7:30 pm. If an individual is unable to get their second vaccination today or prefers to return on a different day, they may go to the Armory for second dose Pfizer vaccinations during hours of operation, Tuesday – Saturday, 7 am to 9 pm.
  • All faculty and staff age 65 or older are eligible to get their first dose at any of the NYC or NYS public vaccination sites, or at the Armory as long as they are NYC residents.
  • Faculty and staff with eligible medical conditions are eligible to get their first dose at any of the NYC or NYS public vaccination sites or at the Armory through their regular appointment system if they reside in NYC, when appointments become available. Appointment information will updatedon the VaccineTogetherNY website.

Patient and Community Vaccinations at the Armory

  • All persons age 18 and over with certain underlying chronic medical conditions became eligible to receive the vaccine effective February 15. Please click here for more information. The Armory will begin vaccinating patients in this category starting on February 23. Letters were sent to Columbia, NYP and Weill Cornell patients. Information will be updated as it becomes available on the VaccineTogetherNY website.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

The FAQ documents on the CUIMC COVID Vaccine Information page continue to be updated, so please check the site for the latest versions.

As of today, over 47,000 faculty, staff, and students at NewYork-Presbyterian, Weill Cornell, and Columbia have received their first dose of the vaccine and more than 40,000 have received second doses. This includes over 29,000 first and second doses administered on the CUIMC campus alone.

Below is the Question of the Day:

Are there any long or short term effects of vaccine for people with asthma?

The FDA specifically wanted the participants in the COVID-19 vaccine trials to be diverse. Thus, both the Pfizer and Moderna vaccine trials were designed to increase the number of persons from racial and ethnic minorities, as well as those with medical conditions (e.g., chronic lung disease, cardiac disease, severe obesity, diabetes, HIV, etc.) that placed them at higher risk of severe COVID-19 disease. 21-22% of participants had the medical conditions as above, and approximately 5-8% of participants (several thousand) had lung disease including asthma. The vaccine safety (side effects/reactions) and efficacy were similar in all of these subgroups.

Thank you and stay safe!

Magda Sobieszczyk MD, MPH
Chief of Infectious Diseases and Co-Chair of the CUIMC COVID-19 Vaccine Committee

Melissa Stockwell MD, MPH
Chief of the Division of Child and Adolescent Health and Co-Chair of the CUIMC COVID-19 Vaccine Committee