COLORADO SPRINGS — It’s been over a week since patients vaccinated at the Dr. Moma clinic in Colorado Springs learned the state was stepping in and halting vaccinations there due to what it says was improper storage. But since then, some of those patients tell News 5 the state has been less than transparent with them.
“There’s a significant lack of information, and it’s really hard to connect the dots, when you’re not given any dots to connect,” said Darcie Hannigan, who received her first COVID-19 vaccine dose at the Dr. Moma Clinic.
She isn’t the only patient who received her first COVID-19 vaccination at the clinic to now feel left in the dark. Susan Easterly does too.
“We cross our fingers and we close our eyes and we make a leap of faith, and they didn’t reach their hand out, they let us fall into the canyon,” Easterly said.
It’s all after last Tuesday, the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment announced “the provider failed to provide proper documentation of temperature storage,” and the nearly 4000 patients who got a vaccine at the clinic would need to get it again.
But that still left patients with lots of questions.
“How effective was my first vaccine,” Easterly said. “Was it absolutely invalid, or was it called invalid because they could not establish paperwork?”
“It seems to be that there are some accusations being made that we have not been able to get a response to directly,” Hannigan said.
She’s not talking about the clinic’s response. In fact, Dr. Moma herself--going by the name Favor Sylvie--has been fairly active answering questions in a Facebook group made up of people vaccinated at her clinic.
“I’m really upset with the state,” Easterly said.
Easterly called up the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment’s vaccine hotline hoping to get some answers.
“I said, well where can I expect to get this information from the CDPHE, and when? And the girl said, just watch the news,” Easterly said.
Over the past week, News 5 contacted CDPHE officials numerous times asking for an on-camera interview to provide these answers. Our requests went ignored until Friday, when CDPHE sent us an email saying “we are unable to accommodate an interview request at this time.”
“The vast majority of the rest of the information we have is what we have found from the news, or a link that someone has posted in the facebook group, or what Dr. Moma has said herself,” Hannigan said.
And that isn’t good enough for them.
“We should not have to be having to scour your news channel, or any news channel, or google searching to get our information,” Easterly said.
They want answers, and just hope someone help can shine a light.
“To me, there’s a lot of questions,” Hannigan said.
The woman who identifies herself as Dr. Moma says she will be holding a press conference Monday afternoon at her clinic, where she says she will give access to the areas she claims vaccines were stored, and refute some of the claims made against her. News 5 will be there to bring you the latest.
