Miami Beach vaccine program helps ‘most vulnerable’ who can’t access hospital portals
After receiving his COVID-19 vaccine, 95-year-old South Beach resident Saul Dymant joked that he would have liked to celebrate by dancing had the pandemic not shut down the party scene.
“I like to dance, but there’s no place to go,” the Holocaust survivor said this month after he got his second dose of the Moderna vaccine.
That’s the kind of reaction the city of Miami Beach was hoping for when it launched a vaccination program in January to immunize elderly residents who have limited internet access, live in affordable housing or are homebound.
Dymant — who was connected with the city through his synagogue, Temple Emanu-El — is one of at least 2,380 seniors who have been vaccinated by Miami Beach Fire Rescue through the program. At least 600 affordable housing tenants and 200 homebound residents have been vaccinated. Firefighters have also set up a vaccination site at the North Beach Senior Center.
Mayor Dan Gelber, who visited Dymant on Feb. 5 during his vaccination, has hailed the program as a success.
“I feel good about it because there’s a lot of talk about who’s getting it and who isn’t — and there are a lot of have-nots who are not getting it,” Gelber said. “We’re trying to really focus on people who are most vulnerable and are most unlikely to be able to access it. That’s the most important thing. We’ve been pretty successful at finding them, and we still have more to do.”
There have not been any appointments available for the program due to limited supply, a city spokeswoman wrote in an email. The city has “targeted community centers, senior buildings and houses of worship because our goal is to reach the greatest number of eligible individuals with our limited staff and limited vaccines,” she said.
As of Feb. 12, the state has distributed 3,700 doses to Miami Beach. City employees over 65 years old and Fire Rescue staff have been offered the vaccine, but the emphasis of the program is to reach the “most vulnerable members of community” who may have trouble accessing online vaccine-registration portals set up by hospitals, Interim City Manager Raul Aguila said in a Feb. 9 memo to the City Commission. Police officers have been offered the vaccine by Miami Beach hospital Mount Sinai Medical Center.
The program costs the city an estimated $202,000 per month, mostly for overtime. The Florida Division of Emergency Management has supplied the city with a group of nurses to aide in the effort. The city intends to apply for federal reimbursement for its expenses.
Firefighter Claudio Navas, who vaccinated Dymant at his apartment, said helping inoculate elderly residents has been the most fulfilling part of his 19-year career with the city.
“The vaccine is definitely something that is giving hope to the community and the best thing that I’ve done by far,” said Navas, who estimates he has vaccinated about 100 people so far. “I really enjoy doing this because when you go to people’s homes, you can see the anxiety that everybody is dealing with. And it allows me to realize how much of a change we can do...”
At the North Beach Senior Center, staff called their nearly 800 registered members to connect interested seniors with the city.
With most of the city’s affordable housing buildings located in South Beach, the senior center provides North Beach residents access to the city’s vaccines, said Victor Diaz Jr., president of the board of directors for Unidad Miami Beach, which operates the center.
“Many of them cry at the fact that they get a phone call because they are so frustrated and don’t know any other way to get the vaccine,” said Diaz, a former city commissioner. “They opened up an opportunity for people who would otherwise not have access to the vaccine.”
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