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The last time a pandemic hit Syracuse, during the Spanish flu of 1918, the New York State Fairgrounds were used as a temporary training camp for soldiers during World War I.

In 2021, it’s being used as a COVID-19 vaccination site.

“There’s a bit of sort of poetic bookending there that I, as a historian, really, really appreciate that sort of stuff,” said Robert Searing, the curator of history at the Onondaga Historical Association. “This is going to be a major talking point for the community for the foreseeable future.”

The site opened Jan. 14 in the fairground’s 110,000 square-foot Exposition Center and has provided over 160,000 doses of the COVID-19 vaccine so far, said Troy Waffner, director of the New York State Fair.

Transforming the fairgrounds into the city’s vaccination site took what Waffner described as a “monumental effort” from Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s office, the State Department of Health and other state agencies.

But in some ways, running the vaccination site isn’t much different than the annual fair, Waffner said, as the day-to-day management and operations of the site are the same as what staff do during the fair.

“In some ways, it’s just another event,” Waffner said. “It’s an event with a huge societal impact.”

Preparing the Exposition Center to be a vaccination site was relatively easy because the room is just a wide-open space, so there weren’t any obstacles to work around, said Dave Bullard, the spokesperson for the state fair.

Shannon Kirkpatrick | Presentation Director

What made setting up the vaccination site different from preparing for other events is that it involved more components, including cold storage facilities for the vaccine.

The building is split into three pieces –– the registration area, the shot administration area and the recovery area–– and different lines organize people by first or second dose, Bullard said. There are 70 desks where people receive the vaccine, each one staffed by a nurse and a person who enters data. Workers and markers on the floor ensure that everyone is maintaining proper social distancing guidelines.

While a significant number of vaccine recipients at the fairgrounds are from central New York, residents from all across the state come to the fairgrounds when appointments open up. Many people come from Rochester and Buffalo, said Waffner, and he has met people who came from as far as Long Island and New York City.

Stephanie Foulis came to the fairgrounds from Buffalo, as Syracuse is the only place where her son was able to get her an appointment. Ithaca resident Randy Hausner, who got both doses of the vaccine at the fairgrounds, feels the vaccination site is helping not only Syracuse but also the whole region.

Earlier in March, the fairgrounds received a limited number of doses of the Johnson & Johnson one-shot vaccine to test run, which they provided during overnight appointments. The fairgrounds also offers the Pfizer vaccine.

Those who have received one or both doses of the vaccine are excited to get their shots and get back to their life, said Bullard. While working at the Exposition Center, people have come up to him and his colleagues to say how happy they are to be there.

The state fair is a service organization, but running a large COVID-19 vaccination site is not something that they ever prepared for, Bullard said. To be back and caring for the community is a great thing, Bullard said.

“To be able to help the community has been one of the great accomplishments of our year,” Bullard said.

New Yorkers from around the state are scheduling appointments at the fairgrounds, including people from Rochester, Buffalo, Long Island and New York City. Corey Henry | Senior Staff Photographer

The vaccination site is also helping the central New York area beyond providing the Pfizer vaccine, as the State Department of Health hired a mostly local contract staff, Waffner said. About 150 workers are needed every day to work in the building.

The vaccination site also provides workers with three free meals a day during their shifts. All of the meals are from locally-owned restaurants, Waffner said, which is a way of helping them since being hit hard by the pandemic.

From a historian’s perspective, Searing sees the fairgrounds’ vaccination site as appropriate due to the location’s history, but he hopes the fairgrounds will soon be home to the fair once again. Foulis, who had never been to Syracuse before, said she would love to come check out the fair one year after visiting the fairgrounds for her vaccine.

“It’s nice to know that the space is being used to help make New Yorkers healthier and hopefully getting us back to some normalcy,” Searing said. “So that the next time people are at the fairgrounds they can get a Gianelli sausage and some cotton candy.”

Published on March 17, 2021 at 10:27 pm

Contact Gavi: gavi@dailyorange.com | @gavi_azoff