Dental Info

Health care workers waiting for vaccine at Worth St. site.   An Article in the Wall Street Journal highlights the difficulties doctors in private practices, who are not on a hospital staff ,have had in obtaining a vaccine, it has become increasingly possible. While the process involved in scheduling a vaccine can be somewhat serpentine, it is possible to get an appointment, by going to various websites and finding a site that has available appointments. I spoke to colleagues, who pointed me to links for websites that were giving out appointments. Initially, when I tried using the links I found sites that were listed and then when I contacted them I was informed that either they had no vaccine or worse yet they didnt get back to me. NYU Langone was listed on one of the sites and I called the number and left a message but no one returned my call.  Eventually after talking with my suite mate he said that he was able to get an appointment in one of the Suffolk County sites and

  Our New York Dental Association has informed us that our staff and ourselves are in  a group designated by the state as 1A. I checked the NY State Board of Health  website and there was only one site giving vaccines to  group 1A and it was already fully booked and not accepting any more  reservations  this time. I expect that as time goes by more sites will be available for group 1A. Meanwhile dentists will continue treating their patients as they have been doing this year.  The NYC positivity rate currently varies depending on a neighborhoods zip code. Forest Hills, where I live has a positivity rate of of over 8%. Of course this doesn't mean that 8% of my neighbors have active virus, but it translates to 8% of the tests being performed on people seeking a test are positive. I myself took a mail in saliva test, dispensed by NYU College of Dentistry, on December 26 and tested negative (whew!).  Our office is currently closed for the holidays, but we will reopen Jan 4 th a