The first-come, first-serve Covid-19 vaccination plan for the elderly in Florida leads to strife

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The first-come, first-serve plan led to huge lines forming Tuesday night as people camped on lawn chairs and waited for hours.

Bruce Scott told CNN that he was at an Ft. Myers vaccination site at 1:30 am and waited in a line for about 8 or 9 hours to get vaccinated.

“While I am grateful to get the vaccine, I think there must be a better way to distribute it,” he said afterwards. “For people who really need it, elderly people who are somehow disabled, they can’t tolerate this process, so there has to be a better way to manage this.”

Seniors and first responders wait 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 taste of what appears to be a tumultuous vaccine rollout and reflects the pent-up public demand for vaccines and the logistical difficulty of administering them in an orderly manner.

The problem stems in part from the lack of consistent federal guidelines on how to administer vaccines, such as President Donald Trump delayed that decision-making up to the states. In turn, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis broke with recommendations from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to focus first on vaccinating the elderly rather than essential workers, and has encouraged each regional health department to make its own decisions. about administering the vaccines.

Florida is one of the few states that has begun to vaccinate people after the first wave of health workers and long-term care facilities. According to data from Johns Hopkins University, the state has administered more than 150,000 vaccines to date, more than in Texas.

Provinces see a huge demand for vaccines

Other Florida counties have tried to arrange vaccination arrangements for those who apply online or through a hotline.

In Orange County, the Department of Health set up an online portal to schedule vaccination appointments, and 30,000 appointments had been scheduled in the last 24 hours. The province then said it had reached capacity and closed its online portal on Wednesday.

Fran Lundell, 70, and her husband, Andy, 73, were among those who signed up successfully, and they were vaccinated after waiting in their car at the Orange County Convention Center in Orlando on Tuesday.

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They said they went to the county website to make an appointment as soon as it was announced. Fran quickly got an appointment, but it took Andy four or five tries to get a lock.

“We think we’re lucky,” said Fran Lundell. “We thought we might get it in March or April, but this is definitely great to get it.”

Jim Seltzer, who was also vaccinated on Wednesday, praised the work the county was doing.

“I thought it was very well organized. I thought they did an excellent job,” he said. “I mean, it was a long wait, but you know, I expected that.”

In Palm Beach County, the Department of Health ordered people 65 and older to call an appointment hotline to get their vaccine. But the hotline can only handle 150 calls at a time and was overwhelmed, the county said.

“We are working to expand our infrastructure to meet the high demand,” the site said.

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

Focus on the elderly over essential workers

Florida is also one of the few states to overtake the CDC’s recommendations on the order of who should get the vaccine first, favoring the elderly over essential workers.

A CDC advisory committee recommended that states vaccinate primary health workers and people in long-term care facilities first, and Florida has followed suit.

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

With the end of the year approaching, vaccine rollouts are woefully behind schedule

However, DeSantis said the state prioritizes anyone over 65, with young essential workers later.

“Our vaccines will target our older population,” he said last week at a news conference at UF Health in The Villages, the central Florida community for people over 55. “As we get into the general community, the vaccines will be targeted where the risk is greatest, and that is with our older population.
The CDC Committee’s recommendations compromised two schools of thought: preventing the spread of Covid-19 and preventing deaths from Covid-19. 75% of all coronavirus infections are made up of people ages 18-64, while people over the age of 65 make up 81% of all deaths from coronavirus, according to CDC data.
DeSantis, who has repeatedly downplayed the severity of Covid-19 for youth, said he disagreed with the CDC’s recommendations to vaccinate essential workers.

“If you are a 22-year-old working in the food supply, say in a supermarket, you would be preferable to 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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