Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Seniors queue up for the COVID-19 vaccine
Residents and employees of senior living communities in Florida began Wednesday to receive COVID-19 vaccinations, another step toward ending the 9-month-old pandemic and protecting the state’s most vulnerable residents.
John Knox Village in Pompano Beach became one of the first senior communities in the nation to receive the coronavirus vaccine. The first seniors got their shots Tuesday in West Virginia.
The Pfizer-BioN Tech vaccine, approved by the FDA for emergency use on Dec. 11, arrived in Florida on Monday and was immediately given to health care workers at Memorial Regional Hospital in Hollywood and Jackson Memorial Hospital in Miami.
Just three days later, the vaccine has begun to spread into the community, with an emphasis on the people most at risk: seniors and front-line workers. Most of the population is expected to have access by spring
or summer.
Dennis Fitch, 70, was among the first seniors at the Pompano Beach residential community to get vaccinated against the debilitating virus, which has infected at least 1.1 million people in Florida.
“Absolutely, there was apprehension going in because it’s new, but it’s something I felt I needed to get done,” he said. “There’s less chance of me getting it or transmitting it now.”
The U.S. had recorded 16,751,562 cases of COVID19 as of midday Wednesday and 304,589 deaths, according to data compiled by the state.
More than 7,700 of Florida’s more than 20,000 COVID-19 deaths have come among nursing home residents. Thirty-nine nursing homes in Florida have had two dozen or more deaths among residents and staff, including a facility in Hialeah with 70.
The state received 21,450 Pfizer vaccines to be split between Broward and Pinellas counties, chosen to be first in the state because of their high concentration of long-term-care facilities. Both staff and residents at 112 facilities in those two counties have begun to receive vaccines. Six nursing homes in Miami-Dade also were sent vaccines.
This first batch for 90 of the most vulnerable residents and 80 front-line workers and health care staff was for The Woodlands community at John Knox.
Mark Rayner, director of health services at The Woodlands, said most — but not all — residents and staff agreed to receive the vaccine. Ninety percent of the seniors signed up, he said. “Some people are still afraid.”
Resident Bruce Voelkel, 71, was not among them.
“I’ve had my flu shot, my shingles shots,” he said. “I’m doing this for the protection of everyone.”
All vaccinations were administered on a voluntary basis, and recipients were tested and screened and filled out consent forms in the days before getting the shot. A second dose will be administered to the group in three weeks.
For seniors who have been living in isolation, disconnected from family members, “this is the beginning of the end to all of that for all of these people who have had to suffer with being alone,” said Jared Moskowitz, director of Florida’s Division of Emergency Management. “This is a very important day. It’s why we didn’t want to waste any hours. … Each day matters.”
The American Health Care Association, which represents nursing homes, has called for every resident and staff member to get both vaccine doses by March 1, even though it expects no federal or state mandates requiring shots.
Next for Florida: the Moderna vaccine, which could get approval in days and then 367,000 doses shipped this weekend. Gov. Ron DeSantis, who traveled to John Knox Village on Wednesday, said the new vaccine will go first to 181 hospitals throughout the state.
The next priority group is seniors age 65 and older who aren’t in long-termcare facilities.
“As we get more Moderna and more Pfizer, then we can start working on getting our elderly population not in these facilities vaccinated,” DeSantis said
After that comes the third vaccine made by Johnson & Johnson due early next year, which will reach a much broader part of society.
Roughly 1,000 seniors live in the John Knox residences at 651 SW 6th Street, just southeast of West Atlantic Boulevard and Interstate 95. Onsite housing options include assisted living, independent living and elder health care.
President and CEO Gerry Stryker said John Knox lobbied early for anything that would combat the illness.
“It’s called influence,” he said. “It’s called influence that we used back in March when we were calling the governor’s office to make sure we had the proper quantity of personal protection equipment.”
Retired St. Louis teacher Vera Leip, 88, who was vaccinated, said she was a bit surprised by all the attention she’s getting, but she wasn’t worried about the shot itself.
“Honey, I’ve had so many shots in my 88 years that one more isn’t going to make any difference,” she said with a chuckle.