South Florida FEMA sites see spotty demand for COVID-19 vaccine
Florida and the federal government are trying to vaccinate minority residents against the coronavirus. But officials have skirted state rules at many of the sites to meet demand.
A pilot program between Florida and the federal government to boost the number of minority and low-income people receiving COVID-19 vaccinations has helped more than 75,000 residents get shots since March 3, according to state data obtained by the Miami Herald.
But the program may not be reaching the people it was designed to help — and it is exposing limitations in Florida’s vaccination eligibility restrictions that could slow the state’s efforts to end the pandemic at a time when more contagious coronavirus variants
are spreading exponentially statewide, particularly in South Florida.
Over the past week, officials at some federally supported sites — located in the metropolitan areas of Miami, Jacksonville, Orlando and Tampa — have responded to initial low demand by opening their doors to all Florida residents over the age of 18, skirting the state’s stringent eligibility restrictions. Those restrictions limit vaccines to those 65 and older, people deemed medically vulnerable by a physician, and educators, law enforcement officers and firefighters over 50.
At least in some instances, that open-door policy seems to have supplemented the lack of demand from residents of underserved communities and helped the sites meet their vaccination targets.
While the federally supported sites have distributed more than 75,000 shots, they had the capacity to deliver 85,000 doses between March 3 and March 8, state data shows. Almost the entire shortfall happened in the Jacksonville area — which has a 30% Black population.
In Jacksonville, only 19% of residents who have received a vaccine and reported their race are Black, state data shows, a trend repeating across the entire state. No data on the racial breakdown of people getting shots specifically at the FEMA sites has been released yet.
The shortcomings of Florida’s vaccine rollout — racial disparities, an underwhelming number of doses distributed, and confusion over who is eligible for a shot — all collided Saturday at a small FEMAsupported
site in Florida City, a majority-Black community in rural South Miami-Dade.
Only a few dozen people showed up to wait Saturday morning before the Florida City site, which is run by the state and supported financially by FEMA, opened. So officials decided to offer vaccines to any Florida resident over the age of 18. As word spread, people from around Miami-Dade flocked to the small city. The site administered 494 shots out of a total capacity of 500 that day.
But on Sunday, when officials went back to following state rules despite a crowd of non-eligible people clamoring for vaccines, it gave out only 321 doses. (The unused doses can be administered in subsequent days and are not being spoiled or wasted.)
Several Herald reporters who were able to get vaccines on Saturday noticed that the crowd appeared overwhelmingly white and Hispanic, despite Florida City being majority-Black, according to U.S. Census data.
Even among those 65 and older, majority Black and low-income parts of South Florida have seen disappointing vaccination rates, despite the state’s placing sites there.
Meanwhile, residents of wealthy, largely white senior living communities around the state, some with ties to Gov. Ron DeSantis’ political donors as well as to major hospitals, started receiving vaccines as early as January.
Zinzi Bailey, a University of Miami professor who studies healthcare inequities, said the state needs to do more than follow a “Field of Dreams” approach of: “If you build it, they will come.” Simply setting up vaccination sites in Black neighborhoods without outreach and partnering with local organizations isn’t enough, she said.
“That’s not how any of this has ever worked,” Bailey said. “This is not how public health has ever worked.”
The urgency to vaccinate hard-hit populations is backed by science. People of color face greater risks from the coronavirus because they are over-represented as workers in “essential,” frontline industries, leading to higher chances of exposure, according to the nonprofit Center for Economic and Policy Research. They also generally receive worse healthcare.
But while Florida has added teachers, a federal directive, and sworn law enforcement — highlighted at a DeSantis press conference — to its vaccination plan, it has yet to address the state’s other essential workers, even though they can spread the virus to vulnerable people in their neighborhoods who might not have been vaccinated yet.
“It shouldn’t be that we have to go around our own state’s rules in order to get the appropriate care,” Bailey said. “It’s just a time to better think about who we’re trying to serve, and whether we’re really trying to stop this pandemic.”
Jared Moskowitz, the director of the state’s Division of Emergency Management in charge of vaccine distribution, said that officials have knocked on 3,000 doors so far in underserved neighborhoods. The state also said it is issuing text messages through its statewide alert system; contracted with a call center to inform residents about the sites in target ZIP codes; hosted registration events with churches; circulated fliers; and deployed “mobile LED billboards” in targeted communities.
On Monday, perhaps in part because of the publicity over the weekend’s Florida City confusion, Miami-Dade’s FEMA sites had their biggest day so far, vaccinating more than 5,600 people — nearly 4,600 at Miami Dade College North Campus, 566 in Florida City and
508 at another site in Sweetwater.
The three Miami-Dade sites have a combined stated capacity of 4,000 daily shots, according to FEMA, but have the ability to push well beyond that, if demand and staffing allow. The sites are able to roll over unused vaccines from previous days and also replenish their supply.
On Tuesday, cars started lining up at the MDC
North site two hours before its 7 a.m. opening. People at the site there said officials were not abiding by state rules and giving vaccines to all who came.
‘LIVING IN FEAR’
Sarai Cruz, 27, and her brother, Marvin, 25, heard they could get a vaccine at the Florida City site from a friend and showed up Saturday afternoon.
Their father, recently vaccinated, is recovering from colon cancer treatment and they’ve spent the last year in strict social isolation.
“I’ve lived in fear this entire year,” Cruz said. “If I went to Target and got the virus and brought it back to my dad, I would be responsible for killing him.”
She and her brother waited for four hours with no luck before being told they could put their names on a list and come back Sunday. The same 18+ rules would be followed, a nurse and a police officer told them. But they saw on social media that night that the site would return to following state guidelines and didn’t bother.
“When you don’t get it, it’s like damn, you were so close,” said Cruz, who works in communications for a local bank and lives with her parents and brother in South Dade. “But then you feel guilt. I’m only 27, my brother is 25. There’s people that deserve it more than us, I guess, even though we all deserve it. But it’s frustrating when they’re not giving out all the vaccines they have . ... We’re all working class, we’re all willing to stand in line. And then you hear about rich people who can just call up and walk in somewhere and get a vaccine.”
Vaccination numbers for Black and Hispanic Floridians, who tend to be poorer, are lagging behind whites.
So far, the state has vaccinated 14.9% of its white population, compared to 6.1 of its Black population, according to a Herald analysis of state vaccine data and Census figures. Statewide, 11.3% of non-Hispanics have received a shot, compared to 7.1% of Hispanics. (The analysis does not account for the sizable group of Floridians who did not disclose their race or ethnicity when they got a vaccine.)
The new FEMA sites were meant to address the problems of racial and economic disparities.
In a state memo, the federally supported sites are described as “part of a national effort to increase COVID-19 vaccine access to underserved populations.” The four counties (Miami-Dade, Hillsborough, Orange and Duval) were chosen for the statefederal pilot program because of large minority populations and high poverty rates, the memo says.
The state’s Division of Emergency Management and Department of Health run the sites. FEMA provides funding for logistics and staffing. Local governments are tasked with “augmenting” outreach for the operation, which is expected to last until April 28.
In each county, officials set up one main hub capable of giving out between 2,000 and 3,000 shots a day. Two other satellite sites were established in minority areas within each county to give out 500 shots per day each.
In Miami-Dade, the main hub is at MDC North. The smaller satellite sites are in Sweetwater, which is heavily Hispanic, and Florida City. The satellites are designed to pick up and move to other underserved parts of the county in coming days. On March 11, Miami-Dade’s two satellites will move to Allen Park Community Center in North Miami Beach and Miami Springs Community Center. No appointments are necessary at any of the sites.
While FEMA sites have agreed to abide by state rules, they are explicitly not doing so for one group of people: teachers.
Under Florida’s restrictions, only teachers 50 years old and up can receive vaccines. But at the federal sites, and certain pharmacies participating in a federal vaccine program, all teachers are eligible.
Officials have said they are responding to a directive from President Joe Biden that all teachers be allowed to get vaccines. The conflicting standards have led to confusion as teachers under 50 show up to state sites for vaccines, only to leave empty-handed.