Covid-19 vaccination plan for the first time in Florida in old age leads to a riot

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The first arrival plan came to the formation of broad lines during Tuesday night while people camped in lawn chairs and waited for hours.

Bruce Scott told CNN he reached a ft. Myers vaccination site at 1:30 in the morning and waited in line for about 8 or 9 hours to get vaccinated.

“While I’m grateful to receive the vaccine, I feel there has to be a better way to distribute it,” he said later. “For people who really need it, older people who may be disabled in some way, can’t stand this process, so there has to be a better way to handle it.”

Seniors and first aid are waiting in line to receive a Covid-19 vaccine at the Lakes Regional Library on December 30, 2020, in Fort Myers, Florida.

The long wait is a preview of what appears to be a tumultuous vaccine launch and reflects the accumulated demand for vaccines from the public, as well as the logistical difficulty of administering them in an orderly manner.

The problem is partly a consequence of the lack of federal guidelines for vaccine administration, as President Donald Trump postponed decision making in states. In turn, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis broke the recommendations of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to focus first on vaccinating the elderly and not on essential workers, and has encouraged every health department of the county to make its own decisions about the administration of vaccines.

Florida is one of the few states that has begun vaccinating people beyond the first wave of health care workers and long-term care centers. To date, the state has administered more than 150,000 vaccines, more than all but Texas, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.

Counties see a high demand for vaccines

Other Florida counties have attempted to set up immunization appointments for those who register online or through a direct line.

In Orange County, the health department created an online portal to make vaccination appointments and 30,000 appointments were scheduled in the last 24 hours. The county then said it reached capacity and closed its online portal Wednesday.

Fran Lundell, 70, and her husband, Andy, 73, were the ones who successfully registered and were vaccinated after waiting Tuesday at the Orange County Convention Center in Orlando in their cars.

When can you get the vaccine? It depends on your health, occupation and place of residence

They said they went to the county website to schedule an appointment as soon as it was announced. Fran got an appointment quickly, but needed four or five attempts to get a spot.

“We think we’re lucky,” Fran Lundell said. “We thought maybe March or April we could get it, but that’s great to get there, no doubt.”

Jim Seltzer, who was also vaccinated Wednesday, praised the county’s work.

“I thought it was very well organized. I thought they were doing an excellent job,” he said. “I mean, it was a long wait, but I already knew it, I was expecting it.”

In Palm Beach County, the health department directed people 65 and older to call an appointment phone line to get the vaccine. But the hotline can only handle 150 calls at a time and was being overwhelmed, the county said.

“We are working on expanding our infrastructure to meet the high demand we are experiencing,” the site said.

And in South Florida, Broward Health said all of its appointments are booked through February.

Focus on the elderly on essential workers

Florida is also one of the few states that has rejected CDC recommendations on the order of who should receive the vaccine first, prioritizing seniors over essential workers.

A CDC advisory committee recommended that states first vaccinate front-line health workers and people in long-term care centers, and Florida followed suit.

The CDC committee then recommended that states vaccinate people over the age of 75 and “essential front-line workers,” such as first aid in a “phase 1b.” Then, in a “Phase 1c,” states should vaccinate adults ages 65 to 75, people ages 16 to 64 with high-risk medical conditions, and “other essential workers,” the committee recommended.

As the end of the year approaches, the launch of vaccines remains far behind

However, DeSantis said the state prioritizes everyone over the age of 65, with young essential workers later.

“Our vaccines will be targeted at our elderly population,” he said at a news conference last week at UF Health in The Villages, Florida’s central community for people over 55. “As we enter the general community, vaccines will be targeted where the risk is greatest, and that is in our elderly population. We will not put healthy young workers ahead of our vulnerable elderly population.”
The CDC committee’s recommendations represented a compromise between two ways of thinking: preventing the spread of Covid-19 and preventing deaths from Covid-19. People aged 18 to 64 account for 75% of all coronavirus infections, while people over 65 account for 81% of all coronavirus deaths, according to CDC data.
DeSantis, who has repeatedly downplayed the severity of Covid-19 for young people, said he did not agree with the CDC’s recommendations for vaccinating essential workers.

“If you’re a 22-year-old working in food services, let’s say in a supermarket, you’d have preference over a 74-year-old grandmother,” he said. “I don’t think that’s the direction we want to go.”

CNN’s Rosa Flores, Sara Weisfeldt and Denise Royal contributed to this report.

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