Lawrence village issues call to join Nassau's volunteer Medical Reserve Corps

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With the Covid-19 vaccines being rolled out and with an increasing need for places to inoculate people, the Village of Lawrence made its residents aware of the Nassau County Medical Reserve Corps, a group of medical volunteers, and offered the county the use of the Lawrence Yacht & County Club as a point of vaccine distribution.

“We are requesting that medical personnel who reside in the Village of Lawrence, join the Nassau County Medical Reserve Corps,” Lawrence Mayor Alex Edelman stated in an email that was sent to village residents on Dec. 30. “It is anticipated that our Medical Reserve Corps will be available to assist in the distribution of the Covid vaccine.”

The corps is a community-based, civilian volunteer program committed to helping strengthen local public-health initiatives and responding to disasters in the region. Established in 2002, it was created to help ensure that medical and public-health professionals could volunteer during an emergency. After the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, the existing system was overrun, and many medical professional who wanted to volunteer were turned away.

“It is volunteers in all medical fields that want to give back to their neighbors and are mobilized when there is a need for it,” said Lawrence resident Dr. Marc Sicklick, who has a practice that focuses on allergy, asthma and immunology in Cedarhurst and has been a Medical Reserve Corps member for roughly 15 years.

Sicklick, who made the Village of Lawrence aware of the corps, said that people in the community were “nervous” about the vaccine rollout. Making the Lawrence country club a convenient point of distribution was another goal of the corps, he said, pointing out that the Five Towns are somewhat isolated from central Nassau County. “I don’t want to see people dying,” said Sicklick, who has in the past treated pediatric AIDS patients.

Comprising doctors, dentists, emergency medical technicians, nurses, paramedics, pharmacists, physician assistants and veterinarians, the corps currently numbers around 1,000, according to spokeswoman Mary Ellen Laurain, but is always looking for people, because many of the volunteers have full-time jobs, she said.

Retired medical professionals are encouraged to volunteer, and are vetted before being accepted and given corps badges, Laurain said. “We do background checks to be indemnified, and there is training,” she explained. “They have been used during disasters, including Hurricane Sandy. We can always use people with a variety of medical skills and experience.”

The Lawrence country club is under contract with the county Department of Health to be a point of distribution, but Laurain said the county is not yet ready to make use of it.

Less than a week after Lawrence sent out the email about the reserve corps, County Executive Laura Curran and Northwell Health CEO Michael Dowling unveiled a partnership, which includes the state, to open a Covid-19 vaccine distribution center at Nassau Community College on Tuesday. The shots are to be administered by the Department of Health and Reserve Corps members, with help from Northwell Health, which has been designated by the state as Long Island’s vaccination hub.

The center will operate in the school’s College Center Building. Vaccinations are for residents who meet the state criteria, though appointments are required. The vaccines are free regardless of insurance or immigration status.

“We are ready, set, go with the county’s first vaccination center,” Curran said at a news conference on Monday. “This is the beginning of our local effort to join New York state and Nassau’s hospital networks to roll out the vaccine.”

Vaccination appointments can be made at www.nassaucountyny.gov/vaccine.

To learn more, or to volunteer for the Nassau County Medical Reserve Corps, call (516) 277-9627 or go to https://www.nassaucountyny.gov/3570/Medical-Reserve-Corps.