Miami’s Jackson is opening vaccines to high-risk residents 55 and over. Here’s what you need
Miami-Dade County is still lagging behind the rest of the state on vaccinating its 65-and-older residents, but its public hospital has opened its COVID inoculations to a new group of high-risk people.
Starting next week, anyone 55 and older with one of 13 medical conditions can request an appointment at Jackson Health System. The shift represents yet another logistical challenge for the hospital, which has for several weeks vaccinated those 65 and older, but has seen demand for its appointments start to slow down.
Jackson Health System CEO Carlos Migoya on Friday attributed the “diminishing demand” to 35% of those 65 and older in the county already receiving the vaccine and to other options, such as state-run sites, becoming available. Statewide, about 43% of those 65 and older have been vaccinated, putting Miami-Dade behind the mark.
Still, demand remains high for vaccines in Miami-Dade. The county-run waiting list for vaccine appointments still has nearly 51,000 people 65 and over awaiting slots, according to county spokeswoman Rachel Johnson.
Doctor’s note required to get vaccine if under 65
While Jackson’s pivot shouldn’t open the floodgates, it is built on something of an honor system: The ability to sign up will hinge on securing a signed doctor’s note and proclaiming that it’s truthful. Migoya said the state’s guidance was to accept doctor’s notes as the main form of verification and turn away anyone who doesn’t have one.
“Based on the state’s directions, we’re taking these doctor’s notes for what they are,” Migoya said during a Friday afternoon virtual press conference announcing the move.
Migoya said appointments would be available online on Tuesday and begin in person on Wednesday at Jackson vaccination sites.
The doctor’s note must list one of 13 conditions identified by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention as high-risk for COVID — breast cancer, cardiomyopathy, congestive heart failure, COPD, coronary artery disease with bypass, Down Syndrome, end-stage renal failure, leukemia, lung cancer, lymphoma, morbid obesity, sickle cell disease and organ transplant recipients.
Adults with these conditions already qualified under Gov. Ron DeSantis’ executive order issued in late December, but have found few places willing to schedule their appointments.
State-run vaccination sites have focused on healthcare workers and those 65 and older, leaving the responsibility of vaccinating the medically vulnerable to hospitals that have largely used their doses to vaccinate their own patients and employees.
The vaccination campaign comes at an opportune time, as South Florida’s epidemic cools from its winter surge. Miami-Dade County reported 1,550 new COVID cases and 28 more deaths, putting its cumulative pandemic totals at 399,593 cases and 5,270 deaths, according to reports Friday from the Florida Department of Health.
Though it’s not currently allowed under the DeSantis executive order, Eric Toner, a senior scholar at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security, said it would make sense to simply allow anyone 55 and older to secure a dose.
Just requiring a doctor’s note, he said, amounted to a “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy.
“There’s going to be no way to realistically verify that somebody has one of the identified conditions,” Toner said. “I would just open it up to 55 and older.”
That’s what Broward Mayor Steve Geller has called for, asking DeSantis on Friday to include people 55 and over, law enforcement and teachers for vaccine eligibility.
But Jared Moskowitz, the state’s director of the Division of Emergency Management in charge of distributing vaccines, told the Miami Herald on Friday that possibility is still a ways off statewide — not until 50% of Floridians 65 and older have received the vaccine, a milestone that could be a week or so away.
State officials would also have to see a significant drop in demand, Moskowitz said.
“At the end of the day, the conversations are already going on in the governor’s office about what groups can be next,” he said. “But we’re going to continue to focus on 65 and older, which makes up 80% of our [COVID] deaths.”
On Friday, Florida surpassed 30,000 COVID-19 deaths, the state Health Department reported, with 30,214 people having died in the state since the pandemic began. Florida has the fourth-highest deaths in the country, after California, New York and Texas, according to the New York Times database of U.S. cases.
Moskowitz said he hadn’t identified any group as likely to be next in line, but Toner, the Johns Hopkins scholar, said he had one in mind.
“In terms of what should be the next group, I would advocate for teachers,” he said. “Not only are they essential workers at high risk, but they are part of the key of getting society reopened.”
Feds to bring more vaccines to South Florida
The White House announced on Friday that Miami Dade College’s North campus will be home to the area’s first federal “mass vaccination” site, a long-awaited addition with plans for enough supply to significantly boost the county’s current lagging pace of first-time immunizations for the COVID-19 virus.
The MDC North site will take appointments for vaccinations 12 hours a day. The campus off Northwest 27th Avenue near Opa-locka is the only announced federal site for South Florida, with the other three going to Tampa, Orlando and Jacksonville. The announcement from DeSantis’ office said each site would administer 2,000 vaccine doses a day.
Additionally, the Biden administration said it would deploy two mobile vaccination units in areas surrounding the sites. Combined, those units plan to administer an additional 1,000 doses per day, bringing the daily total to 3,000 vaccines administered by the new federal operation.
The office of U.S. Rep. Frederica Wilson, a Democrat representing parts of the Miami area, first announced the Biden administration’s plan for the MDC North center in a Thursday night statement that said the facility “will significantly increase access” to COVID-19 doses. Located in an area with a relatively high portion of Black residents, Wilson said selection of the campus was designed to boost the vaccination rate for the county’s Black population.
“This is literally the shot in the arm our county needs,” Wilson said in the statement.
This story was originally published February 19, 2021 at 5:28 PM.
