CROWDS FEAR LINES, FIND SPEEDY SHOTS
Many worried about long wait times, needles at Orlando’s FEMA COVID-19 vaccination site leave feeling relieved
Hours before the vaccination site opened, a quiet mass of people had already begun to form a line outside. It was 54 degrees and still dark, but no one was willing to risk losing their spot.
A group of men stood in front with hands tucked deep in their pockets. They said they’d been there since 2 a.m. About 50 people back, Hector Fonseca, 62, and his 30-year-old niece, Jasmine Fonseca, arrived at 5:50 a.m. They’d heard there were only 2,500 Pfizer vaccine doses available for the day total and were determined to get two of them.
“We were nervous there were going to be thousands of people here,” Hector Fonseca said.
Over the course of the day Tuesday, hundreds of people flowed to the federal vaccination site at Valencia College’s west campus, receiving their shots in a series of white, air-conditioned tents fed by zigzag
ging queues of people. The site opened March 3 and has vaccinated an average of 300 people an hour since, up to a total of 3,000 doses a day.
Many who arrived Tuesday said they entered the tents fearing long needles and a longer wait time, but left saying their fears had been unfounded.
The site opened at 7 a.m. and the line snaked forward steadily. By 8, the Fonsecas and roughly 250 other people received their dose of the COVID-19 vaccine.
“It was a great experience,” Hector Fonseca said after. “Way better than what we imagined.”
Craig White, a 31-year-old teacher at Valencia College, called it “the best public health experience I’ve ever had.”
A mix of teachers, health care workers, law enforcement officers and firefighters older than 50, people 65 or older and those deemed medically vulnerable queued up between orange barricades and traffic cones Tuesday morning. The site includes wheelchairs and handicap accessible parking.
Orlando police, federal employees, active duty soldiers and volunteers teemed around the lines shouting directions and offering assistance: “Have your ID out. The line starts here. Did you preregister? Keep your ID out.”
People can preregister for the vaccination online through MyVaccine.FL.gov. Docleia Gibson, a department of defense spokesperson for the site, compared the process to using a Fast Pass at Disney.
The site also takes walk-ups. Those who did not preregister occupied a slightly slower-moving line, but even they usually had their vaccine in less than an hour.
“I was amazed at how quickly we moved,” said Cory Lancaster, a Stetson University employee, as she neared the end of the queue. Cereal bars, magazines and a cup of coffee peeked out from the bag under her arm. “I was ready to be here all day.”
The process is straightforward: Pass through a series of air-conditioned tents, the first of which is used for registering and verifying a person’s vaccine eligibility. For teachers and law enforcement workers, that means an employee badge. For the medically vulnerable, it’s a state document printed and signed by a doctor.
Other tents just offer a reprieve from the heat while people wait to enter the second-to-last tent. That’s where soldiers in camouflage, masks and face shields administer the vaccine.
They verify a person’s name and age one last time, ask if they’ve experienced any flu-like symptoms in the last 10 days and which arm they would rather be stuck.
The needle is in and out in less than five seconds, and the soldiers smile behind their mask. “Not bad, huh?” one said.
Many agreed.
“If you watch the news, you see this huge needle going into the arm. Pfizer was a little tiny needle,” Hector Fonseca said after he received his shot. He pinched his forefinger and thumb together, and his niece nodded.
“I didn’t even know he did it,” she said. “Oh, it was that easy.”
The site offers 500 doses a day of the Johnson and Johnson vaccine and 2,500 of the Pfizer, according to Gibson. The J&J vaccine, which requires only one shot but has shown less efficacy than Pfizer in clinical trials, is given on a firstcome, first-served basis.
“I got here and saw a lot of people in line, I was a little concerned that I wouldn’t be able to get the Johnson and Johnson,” said 32-year-old Sydney Moeller. “I didn’t realize a lot of people were here to get their second round to Pfizer, so it worked out.”
People wait in the final tent for 15 minutes — 30 if they indicated they have allergies — after they get the vaccine to ensure no adverse reaction occurs before they leave the site. Staff wait in golf carts near the exit to drive any who ask back to their cars.
Between 7 and 11 a.m. Tuesday, when the site appeared busiest, the time it took to receive a vaccine didn’t exceed two hours. The 500 J&J doses were used up by 10:30 a.m. and the remaining Pfizer vaccines depleted by 4:30.
“Attention please,” a loud speaker said. “The vaccination supply for today has been exhausted. Please remain in line to pre-register for future vaccine appointments.”
A line of about 100 people mulled outside the first tent, having just missed the vaccine. Some stayed in line to preregister for an appointment the next day, and others left.
Victoria Richardson, an 51-yearold mother of two, said her son attends a public middle school, and she’s afraid every day of what he might be exposed to. Richardson, who qualified for inoculation as medically vulnerable, was prepared to be turned away when she made the last-minute decision to drive to the site Tuesday afternoon, she said.
“I was fully ready for them to say ‘We don’t have enough,’ or ‘We’re out,’ and I would try again next time,” Richardson said.
She was among the last people to receive a vaccine.
“And they scheduled my second shot on my birthday,” she said. “Talk about a gift.”