Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Frustration mounts over vaccine
Seniors may have to wait for months as systems fail and supplies are low
Anger and frustration grew Tuesday as senior citizens lined up for hours to get a COVID-19 vaccine that has proven elusive as registration systems collapse and supplies run low.
Some public officials assailed Gov. Ron DeSantis for misleading seniors into thinking they would get vaccinated more easily. Broward Mayor Steve Geller warned that it may be months before seniors — let alone anyone else — are vaccinated against the deadly coronavirus.
Meanwhile, the number of COVID-19 cases is soaring. Florida on Tuesday reported 15,431 new cases and 98 more residents dead.
In Boca Raton, hundreds of residents at Century Village stood in line for hours in the sun waiting to be inoculated at the 55-and-over gated community. Many bemoaned what they called a haphazard system of distributing the vaccine.
One woman said she arrived at 6 a.m. and waited in line for four hours before being told she needed to make an appointment. She returned at 11:30 a.m. and said she was in line until 3 p.m.
Another woman said she had an appointment for 1 p.m. but didn’t receive the vaccine for two hours.
Many residents declined to speak publicly, saying they feared they would be denied their second dose if they complained. Both vaccines available in the U.S. — one from Pfizer and its partner BioNTechand and the other from Moderna — require two doses several weeks apart.
No one from the Department of Health in Palm Beach County and or Century Village was available to comment Tuesday. But Geller, the Broward mayor, called it “a matter of math” that there isn’t enough vaccine in Florida and probably won’t be “for a couple of months — and that’s just for the seniors.”
After health care workers and first responders, DeSantis ordered that people 65 and older were next in line,
Geller said the governor gave the “inaccurate belief” that seniors would get vaccinated immediately.
“I believe he may have given that i mpression ... or at least that’s what seniors heard,” Geller said. “He never said that, but it appears he didn’t clarify that seniors would have to wait for months for the vaccines.”
Although Florida has enough vaccine for 568,000 people, the state is home to 4.5 million seniors, including 340,000 in Broward County and about 400,000 in Palm Beach County,
As of Monday, 25,694 people had been vaccinated in Broward County, 15,198 in Palm Beach County and 33,181 in Miami-Dade, according to the Florida Department of Health.
Geller said he’s been inundated with complaints from residents who are “angry at what they perceive as the incompetence of ... the distribution plan. They know that government has failed them.”
He deflected the blame to DeSantis and the Florida Department of Health in Broward, which is run by the state, not the county.
To deal with the onslaught, t he health department will open a handful of additional county parks to speed up the vaccines for Florida’s seniors, Geller said.
Holiday Park in Fort Lauderdale will open Thursday, joining sites at Central Broward Park & Broward County Stadium in Lauderhill, as well as three to five other locations within the next two weeks. Appointments are required and people without them will be turned away.
Miami-Dade county officials said Tuesday that they are exploring the possibility of drive-thru vaccination sites at existing testing sites including Hard Rock Stadium in Miami Gardens.
Memorial Hospital will offer vaccines for seniors starting Thursday. Their phone line to make the appointments opened Tuesday. Plans also are underway to vaccinate the seniors who live at three condo communities in Broward County: Century Village in Deerfield Beach, Kings Point in Tamarac and Wynmoor in Coconut Creek.
Geller said “there may or may not be enough vaccines” for the people who live there. Seniors “will get it in the next two to three months but not tomorrow,” he said.
The state’s Department of Health already opened drive-thru vaccination lines at Tradewinds Park in Coconut Creek and Vista View Park in Davie on Sunday. Markham Park in Sunrise began the vaccines Tuesday.