Center for Discovery secures 900 vaccines, has few coronavirus cases, no deaths a year into pandemic

HARRIS – Parents are already cracking smiles and crying because the Center for Discovery’s newly vaccinated residents can return home for short visits for the first time since March.

The Harris-based Center – an internationally known caregiver, health-care provider, school and research institute for those with complex developmental disabilities  – recently administered 900 Pfizer coronavirus vaccines.

“We're calling them freedom shots,” said Terry Hamlin, the Center’s associate executive director. “We knew right away we’d be in trouble with this virus if we didn’t act quickly,” she said.

Federal guidance calls for the coronavirus vaccine's use with youths as young as 16. And the shots are especially critical for those with multiple co-occurring conditions – from weakened immune systems to heart conditions and obesity – like those the Center serves, research shows.

All told, the Center last week nearly completed vaccinating 650 of its staff members and 250 children and adults from ages 16 to 86 (93 percent of those eligible). And the Center is set to finish the inoculations early next month.

Denise Lombardi started crying during an interview Tuesday, recalling the recent news that her son R.J. got the shot. That means R.J., a 17-year-old Center resident with autism, will soon get to see the new house his parents bought in Hurleyville.

Last year was trying for the Lombardis. Just as she turned 46, Denise Lombardi’s father died of coronavirus at age 73 in April. Now, the Lombardis and other families will, with precautions like social distancing and protective gear, get to host their children for short home visits again.

“I can’t even talk about it,” Denise Lombardi said as her voice cracked with emotion. “I can’t wait. I’m so grateful that we’re finally going to be able to take him home, and it’s because the Center jumped through so many hoops to get the vaccine.”

Public still clamoring for vaccines

The Center’s ability to secure the vaccines, however, offers no hints or help for the general public as locals clamor for scarce shots. Statewide and nationwide, vaccines are in short supply

But the Center was eligible to get shots in large quantities, with help from its specialty pharmacy PharmScript, from the federal government because the Center is a long-term care and residential facility. It registered with the CDC to receive the vaccines in early November.

With 1,700 employees, 330 residents with disabilities and another 600 students and outpatients, the Center, Sullivan County’s largest employer, also had the resources and know-how to implement a complex effort early on to handle the coronavirus.

Its initiatives have led to just "a handful" of coronavirus cases and no virus-related deaths among staff and those it cares for and teaches, Hamlin said. The Center, for example, has been largely locked down since March, when it immediately started requiring that everyone wear masks and other protective gear.

Plus, the Center almost immediately opened a cooperative grocery market (stocked with meat, veggies and bread from its own farms and kitchens) and a laundry facility for its employees. CNN recently did a story on the Center keeping its staff and those it serves safe.

"We’ve seen what happens to these vulnerable populations (in other long-term care facilities) when they get sick" from the coronavirus, Rob Lombardi said. “They’re stuffed in a hospital, no one is there to advocate for their wellbeing, and they just get brushed aside and even left to die."

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Nancy Evans, 69, of Ardsley, agreed. She was “overjoyed” at the news her daughter, Heather, 40, will be able to leave one of the Center’s farms, where she lives, to visit her family. Heather has cerebral palsy, among other conditions.

“With this pandemic, the Center has just been out ahead of it way before anyone else, especially with caring for these medically fragile people,” Evans said.

In other Center news, come spring, the nonprofit will begin full-scale construction to convert the former Frontier Insurance Building in the Town of Thompson into a $15 million, 18-bed sub-acute pediatric specialty hospital, school and research center. Its leaders expect to finish the project by spring 2022.

daxelrod@th-record.com