by Sarah Craighead Dedmon

Down East Community Hospital’s website is set up to accept reservations for public vaccinations, beginning with people 70 and older. But before they open the floodgates, hospital officials say they want vaccines in hand.

Spokesperson Julie Hixson said the Machias hospital learned a painful lesson when they were promised delivery of 200 doses and so took 200 reservations for health care workers and other members of Maine Center for Disease Control (CDC) vaccine phase 1a, the first phase to be vaccinated.