Answering your vaccine questions
The Sentinel answers queries from readers about when the Orange mobile vaccination site will open, vaccine eligibility.
COVID-19 vaccination efforts are in high gear across Florida this week, as more than a half-million doses are being distributed to clinics, hospitals and mobile units. All Florida residents 18 and over are eligible for the shots, and 16- and 17-year-olds are eligible for the Pfizer vaccine with parental consent. At most sites, they must also be accompanied by a parent or legal guardian.
The FEMA-run Valencia College site off Kirkman Road has enough Johnson & Johnson vaccine to administer at least 3,000 shots a day, while the Orange County Convention Center site has ramped up efforts to vaccinate about 4,000 people a day.
And starting Monday, Orange County will open a mobile site in the Conway area as part of a roving effort to bring 1,000 shots a day into underserved neighborhoods.
But even as eligibility has become clear, questions remain about future supplies of shots, and where people will be able to be inoculated after county officials announced the Orange County Convention Center site would close at the end of May.
Here’s a list of answers to questions posed by Orlando Sentinel readers, and what we know so far.
When is the Orange County Convention Center vaccine site closing? And why?
The Orange County Convention Center site is expected to close at the end of May, with the last first doses of Pfizer being
issued there May 5, Dr. Raul Pino, the local state health officer, said this week. That’s because as more vaccinations occur and business travel kicks back up, the Orange County Convention Center has planned meetings and trade shows that require the space occupied by the site, Pino said.
With the OCCC site closing, does that mean fewer people will be vaccinated daily here?
Pino and county officials say that won’t be the case. The closure marks a shift in strategy in Orange County, where one large vaccination site could be replaced by two other locations equaling the same output Pino said. Currently, the convention center is vaccinating as many as 4,000 people per day.
In replacing it with multiple sites, it would allow the county to inoculate people in different areas of town who lacked transportation or were less likely to brave traffic to the convention center.
No locations have been chosen yet, as officials are still devising plans for when the site closes next month.
When does Orange County’s mobile vaccination site open? How does it work?
The county opens its mobile site Monday at Barber Park in the Conway area. The mobile team will operate there Monday through Friday, vaccinating people with appointments from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. before accepting walk-ups without appointments from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m.
The crew is equipped with 1,000 Pfizer vaccine doses a day. Appointments can be made at ocfl.net/vaccine.
Future locations haven’t been announced.
How common are side-effects from the vaccine? How serious are they?
Scientists have been tracking reactions to COVID vaccination for several months now, with special interest in the Pfizer and Moderna brands, which are new types of vaccines but based on technology that is more than a decade old. A study published last week in JAMA Insights tallied responses from over 3.6 million volunteers who agreed to report their experiences.
About 70% said they had an injection site reaction (mostly pain, but a few had swelling or itching) after the first dose and 75% did after the second dose. About half reported some sort of systemic reaction after the first dose — most often fatigue, headaches or general muscle pain — but that rose to nearly 70% after the second dose.
And nearly a third reported chills, fever or joint pain after the second shot. The reactions were more pronounced in younger people than those over age 65, and they were also more common in Moderna vaccine recipients than in those receiving the Pfizer shots.
The reactions were most commonly reported during the first day following a second dose, and, according to the study’s authors, “declined markedly through day 7.” Who is eligible for the vaccine now?
The answer to this is finally simple: As of April 5, if you’re a Florida resident and 18 years or older, you’re eligible.
Also, 16 and 17-year-olds are eligible to receive the Pfizer vaccine. Kent Donahue, a spokesman for the Florida Department of Health in Orange County, said the county’s portal will include an option for teens. To be vaccinated at the Orange County Convention Center — and most sites across the state — teens must be accompanied by a parent or legal guardian.