Courtney Luciana photo
Maria Olmo — who at first hesitated to participate — receives her shot Thursday.
Covid-19 vaccines arrived Thursday at Fair Haven’s Mary Wade nursing home, and 104 residents and approximately 80 employees got their shots.
CVS and Walgreens pharmacies vaccinated staff and residents all day, as apart of a statewide rollout of Covid-19 vaccinations at nursing homes, which have struggled to keep people well and alive during the pandemic.
Mary Wade Executive Director Doug Melanson said the home prepared for weeks for the arrival of vaccines, holding discussions about the process and giving residents consent forms to fill out.
Out of a total of 107 long-term residents, only three of them refused. Out of 170 employees, roughly half of staff received their vaccinations on the first trial. In 21 days, the other half of employees will receive their injection. On the third trial after another 21 days, everyone will be vaccinated.
“We planned out how many vaccinations to ask the pharmacies to bring ahead of time. We anticipated getting a little more folks to vaccinate than the original list,” Melanson said. “Some folks did opt in last minute.”
Contributed photo
CEO David Hunter’s turn
CEO David Hunter said that Mary Wade was the first senior care community in the state to test residents and staff and receive the test results back in 24 hours.
“Prior to that, we couldn’t get people tested. We got hit hard in the beginning. You had to have symptoms before receiving a test and needed a doctor’s order to get the test. The lab didn’t have test kits available. Then it took five to seven days to get a result. Since the first week of May, we’ve been doing well.”
After additional testing kits became available, Mary Wade staff has been consistently tested for coronavirus twice a week and residents have been tested once a week. Employees are required to receive the flu shot but not the COVID-19 vaccine, as of yet.
“We’re going to wait and see what happens with regular testing after the trials. Once you get the vaccine, it doesn’t mean that you can’t or won’t get COVID,” Hunter said. “The vaccination is too new to require it to be mandatory.”
The home’s director of nursing, Kara Taylor, has been at Mary Wade for 21 years. She said that the vaccination is the establishment’s way of moving forward after a wave of fatalities.
“We’re hoping to move forward toward the future so that we can get the herd immunity that we need. I’m more administrative, but once COVID hit, all our staff became hands on. Between the staff and residents being tested every week, we’re doing 400 nasal swabs a week. Most of our week is conducting testing and reporting the results into a portal.”
Courtney Luciana photo
Shirley Stafford.
Mary Wade is divided two sections:residential care living and skilled nursing home. Shirley Stafford has been living in the residential care for one year and was the first resident of her section to receive her vaccination Thursday morning.
“I was scared in the beginning. At first, I said, no,” Stafford. “Then I said yes. I changed my mind because I figured that one way or the other. If I catch the virus, I catch it. If I don’t, I don’t. I don’t have a headache or nothing. I don’t feel any side effects.”
Stafford stood by the door to cheer on the director of boardman residence, Maria Olmo, to receive her vaccination (pictured above). Olmo has worked at Mary Wade for 11 years.
“We are very family oriented here,” Olmo said. “I was worried about getting the vaccination. I’ve been going back and forth on making the decision, but I was here for the beginning when COVID first hit and it’s something that I would never want to relive. If it means getting the vaccine will keep the residents safe as well as myself and my family then it’s a chance that I have to take.”
“I did it just for you,” Olmo told Stafford, after receiving her vaccination.
“I love you,” Stafford told Olmo.