Gov. Hogan tours local doctor's office -- a future vaccine clinic

Mar. 26—Gov. Larry Hogan (R) visited Frederick Thursday afternoon to tour Dr. Julio Menocal's office along the Golden Mile, which will be a future site of the vaccine clinic.

Menocal announced last week his office would serve as a community vaccination clinic and that he had vaccinated more than 300 people.

The doctor received more vaccine this week and hopes to increase his daily vaccinations from 50 doses to 100 doses in the coming weeks.

"Basically, people call, they give us their demographic data, we don't check IDs, and we're on the honor system," Menocal said last week.

"Most of them have been people over the age of 70, [last] week we vaccinated people from 65 onward, so you know, a lot of them are Hispanic and African Americans," he added. "We vaccinate people under 40 who are disabled — we see a lot of disabled folks, and different community groups."

Menocal, in a news briefing last week, called on county officials and Sheriff Chuck Jenkins (R) to suspend the 287(g) program so more Hispanics felt safer receiving the vaccine. A few days later, he apologized to Jenkins, acknowledging Jenkins has the right to run the program as a state constitutional officer.

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