Rumors on social media of soon-to-expire COVID-19 vaccines up for grabs at the Brooklyn Army Terminal sparked a frenzy of people rushing to the site in the hopes of scoring a shot Thursday evening — before the city showed up with a dose of reality.
Images and messages shared on Twitter and Facebook purported that the Sunset Park vaccination site had “410+ doses” that were available to “anyone in community age 18+.”
The subsequent rush led City Hall to dispatch workers there to disperse the crowd, a spokesman for Mayor Bill de Blasio said.
“There is NOT available vaccine for people without appointments. This was misinformation and the notification did not come from the NYC gov,” press secretary Bill Neidhardt tweeted.
“We are sending people to Brooklyn Army Terminal to ask people in line to return home if they don’t have appointments.”
Video clips of the scene posted on Twitter show a long line of people queued up on sidewalks and cop walking amid cars that filled the streets.
Brooklyn writer Jessica Valenti also tweeted around 5:10 p.m. that she was was “on line with approx 500 ppl lol.”
“As expected they ran out but was worth a try!” she added about 25 minutes later.
Currently, only those age 65 and older, health care workers, teachers, cops and other frontline workers are eligible to get the shots in New York state.
source NYpost