Puerto Rico medical workers sleep outside to get vaccine access

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico — Juan Maldonado arrived at the stadium in Puerto Rico’s capital where COVID-19 vaccines are being administered ready to wait all night.

Over the last week, he’d gone twice to the Coliseo Pedrín Zorrilla only to find endless lines. Eager to get vaccinated, the pediatric occupational therapist opted to sleep in his car with a colleague in order to ensure they’d be among the first in line.

Nearby, a group of fellow health care workers also staking out spots blasted music at a makeshift dance party. He struggled to sleep, anxious about not being awake on the open road.

“When the going gets tough, the tough get going,” he said.

As Puerto Rico embarks on a massive vaccination campaign, getting access to the shot has become yet another source of anxiety for many health care workers on the frontlines of the pandemic.

Thousands of hospitals workers have already been vaccinated on site, but now the larger field of medical workers are vying for the vaccine and finding it not so easy to get. No vaccination appointment system has been set up for the over 130,000 medical workers included in the first phase of vaccinations.

Department of Health deputy secretary Dr. Iris Cardona said in a WKAQ 580 radio interview Monday that setting up an appointment system was “difficult” in a largescale vaccination program. The first come, first serve approach is frustrating health care workers, many already skeptical from public officials’ past record on emergency management.

“I’m not asking for a privilege,” said Mayra Martínez, a child psychologist who went to the stadium three times trying to get the first of two shots. “The conditions in which health professionals are being subjected is not healthy for overall well-being.”

Vaccinations against COVID-19 in Puerto Rico kicked off with hospital workers on Dec. 15. Cardona called the first week of vaccination “impeccable.” Within 4 days, the majority of the over 30,000 vaccine doses that arrived in the first shipments had been administered, she told the Herald.

But when the first phase of inoculations expanded to include all the island’s health care workers, logistics went haywire.

The Coliseo Pedrín Zorrilla opened its doors last Wednesday, and hundreds showed up on the first day to get their shots, causing chaos, confusion, and traffic jams in San Juan.

Some health care workers have since chosen to violate the government’s 9 p.m. curfew, lining up on a highway in the middle of the night.