Last Thursday nearly 80 Marlborough seniors received the Moderna vaccine in the courtroom at the town hall in Milton after County Legislator Tom Corcoran pushed to get the shot for his constituents in the most southern part of Ulster County. Due to a recent sudden spike in the number of doses delivered to the county and the availability of Dr. Neal Smoller, of the Village Apothecary in Woodstock, many seniors can now rest a little easier in the face of Covid-19.

Corcoran said just getting ready for last Thursday was hectic.

“I had to enter 80 to 100 names into the pharmacy’s computer, then I had to enter them into the state’s computer and then who canceled or could not get a ride,” he said. “It was insane getting 78 people vaccinated here last Thursday, it was just crazy.”

Corcoran had assigned about 25 seniors to different time slots, “but you know seniors, they all showed up at 12:15 before Dr. Neal arrived at 12:30 and we got the last shot in at 2 p.m.”

Corcoran said this happened because he reached out to County Executive Pat Ryan in Kingston and told him, “I thought the southern tier was overlooked and they put me in touch with Dr. Smoller.”

Corcoran is appreciative of the efforts of Dr. Smoller, who drives all over the county giving shots to seniors.

“What Dr. Neal is doing with his traveling show is really a testament to him doing what he can,” Corcoran said. “Neal has been a godsend that was sent my way and I’ve been able to work with him doing this.”

Corcoran said the seniors received the Moderna shot and Dr. Smoller will be back in Marlborough the last week in March to administer the second shot.

Dr. Smoller said he came down to Marlborough to ensure the senior population received the vaccines. He said this was all do to the efforts of Tom Corcoran.

“He went above and beyond, more than any family member would do for a single elderly relative and he did it for nearly 120 people. It’s really remarkable, its blown me away and I’m really impressed with how far he has gone for his people,” Smoller said. “We did about 80 folks and now we’re going to take in 40 more this week.”

Dr. Smoller is working constantly in his quest to get people vaccinated.

“I am 100% burning the candle at both ends these days,” he said. “We just got allocated 3,200 doses, which is 32 times what I had when I met with Tom; I only had 100 doses that week and now we’re getting 32 times that and it’s 3 times the amount we’ve gotten, period, to date.”

Dr. Smoller expects to move that amount in 3 days using the volunteers he has at his disposal.

“We’re really, really excited but it’s very long days and we’re having trouble sleeping. It’s really tough just because I want to make sure this goes off without a hitch,” he said.