New York City residents crowded the Brooklyn Army Terminal on Thursday night after a WhatsApp message suggested that they could receive first-come first-serve coronavirus vaccines.
Officials were left scrambling by crowds who showed up because of the message, which was not put out by the city.
The WhatsApp message told New Yorkers that the city needed to give out 410 doses and that anyone age 18 or older was eligible.
An example of how the news spread: pic.twitter.com/1M6e500cfC
— Stephen Lurie (@luriethereal) January 14, 2021
The line of people outside the army terminal stretched several blocks, according to the Washington Post. “Even workers were confused” by the scene, Ashley Privett, who had a scheduled appointment for the vaccine, said. “I spoke to a staff person and she said, ‘We’re not honoring appointments,'” Privett added.
None of it was true. Bill Neidhardt, the press secretary for New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio, corrected the record on Twitter.
There is NOT available vaccine for people without appointments. This was misinformation and the notification did not come from the NYC gov.
We are sending people to Brooklyn Army Terminal to ask people in line to return home if they don’t have appointments. https://t.co/eL8PnEd8Z3
— Bill Neidhardt (@BNeidhardt) January 14, 2021
Other states have offered vaccines to people on the street in an effort to avoid throwing them out, since the vaccines have a very limited shelf life. Pharmacists have approached people on the street in places like Washington, DC and Austin, Texas to offer them the vaccine, according to the Washington Post. (RELATED: REPORT: Local Walgreens Hands Out Near-Expiration Vaccine Doses To Random Citizens)
The confusion was another example of New York’s troubled vaccine rollout. Governor Andrew Cuomo changed vaccine eligibility rules on Jan. 12 after facing criticism for strict policies that led to the expiration of vaccines. De Blasio ripped Cuomo over a rule that would have fined hospitals for distributing vaccines out of the state-mandated order, calling the governor’s approach “just arrogance.”