No appointment? No problem! Danvers vaccination site deviates from rules

DANVERS, Mass. — Was it a breakdown in communication, a misreading of the rules or a desire to avoid confrontation at the vaccination table?

For several hours Thursday morning, caregivers and others who accompanied 75-plus year-olds to the state’s Danvers mass Covid-19 vaccination site got vaccinated -- even if they had no appointments.

That is in direct violation of a state Department of Public Health rule, issued Wednesday -- and reiterated to Boston 25 News Thursday morning, after reporter Kelly Sullivan interviewed Lisa Murrin of Reading, who took her mother in for vaccination -- and wound up getting vaccinated herself, without an appointment.

“I was ecstatic,” said Murrin. “I was hoping I could get the shot with her today even though I didn’t have an appointment scheduled with her and it was no problem. Just brought my license and they were happy to give us the shot.”

Murrin was hardly the last caregiver to enjoy the ‘no-appointment’ perk Thursday before Curative, the company running the Danvers site, announced around 1 p.m. it would only be vaccinating those with appointments.

“I did not know if I was going to be able to get a shot today,” said Lori Dyer, who accompanied her father. “I just asked the man at the desk if I was eligible because I had brought in my dad who is 86. And he said absolutely. I said I don’t have any paperwork. He said. No problem I’ll just register you right here on the spot.”

Actually, the spot caregivers are supposed to register on is this one: mass.gov/covidvaccine where they can schedule two separate appointments around or adjacent to one another.

David DeSousa did not expect to get a shot Thursday.

“The state website clearly says that only appointments made after today would be able to get shots,” he said.

So wasn’t he surprised when, as he accompanied his 98-year-old father Alec into the vaccination room, he was offered the vaccine, too.

“And I did, indeed, get a shot today,” DeSousa said.

John Sousa, on the other hand, did not get a shot.

The 68-year-old drove up to the Danvers site without an appointment, along with his brother.

“My brother’s 74. So he’s close,” Sousa said. “So we just come up on the chance maybe they’d let us in and take care of us.”

They did not take care of either Sousa brother.

“They just said no appointment, don’t bother coming in,” Sousa said. “I’m very disappointed. You know I figured the vaccine would help us out. I’m just gonna have to wait until they call me and I don’t know when that’s gonna happen.”

Boston 25 News attempted to find out why Curative deviated from DPH rules. They told us:

“On February 10, a total of 1,801 doses were delivered to patients. Some additional doses were available for administration, and to avoid doses going to waste, Curative offered patients who were already registered with appointments later in the week to come to the Danvers location to receive their dose. Curative handled the high interest and demand from patients to move their appointment time and receive their dose early by creating two lanes: one for patients with existing appointments for February 10, and those with an appointment for a future date, but with interest to be vaccinated on February 10.

Additional doses were available due to the cancellation of appointments from previous days largely due to inclement weather. The Curative team manages the inventory of available doses and appointments closely and does not foresee excess doses moving forward. However, in case of high patient volumes in the future new operational protocols have been put into place to accommodate additional patients inside of the DoubleTree. Furthermore, we request patients remain in their cars until their appointment window to keep patients and staff safe.

To date, Curative has provided more than 7,000 vaccines at the Danvers DoubleTree vaccination location. Curative appreciates the collaboration with the DoubleTree team and local partners to ensure that we can increase the number of individuals vaccinated each day and create a safe location for patients and staff.”

We have asked for further clarification as to what happened on Thursday.

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