FLORIDA —
Pfizer and Moderna are helping in the fight against COVID-19 with two new vaccines.
Already, roughly 70,000 first doses have been administered in Florida, according to the Florida Department of Health.
The Florida Department of Health’s vaccination report shows a massive disparity in race and age when it comes to getting the vaccine.
Young people between the ages of 25 and 54, according to the Department of Health, overwhelmingly make up more than half of the vaccines administered statewide.
The data shows a similar trend when it comes to race: just over 5,000 doses have been given to people in the Black community, while already over 40,000 doses have been given to white people.
While the general public waits for the vaccine’s arrival, UF Health’s Chad Neilsen, Director of Accreditation and Infection Prevention, explains that you might be seeing more of the Moderna vaccine than the Pfizer vaccine.
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“Most folks particularly as they roll out to the general population are going to get the Moderna vaccine because it’s easier to move around, easier to ship it, store it,” he said.
So far locally, around 7,500 people have been vaccinated in the nine Florida counties Action News Jax covers. (Georgia does not track vaccines by county)
Neilsen says whatever vaccine people may have access to, though, both are equally good.
“No indication that one causes side effects than the other, so I think the viewers, whatever one they can get first is the one that they should get,” he added.
Nielsen says the general public can expect the vaccine in late spring.
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Even people who don’t live in Florida can get vaccinated here -- so far, around 750 from out of state have done so.
Connie Bend with River City Rehab has already gotten her shot.
“I was always so cautious about the flu shot,” she said, adding that the COVID-19 vaccine was even more worrying.
But it was her work -- her passion -- that made her get the vaccine.
“I want to be an advocate, I’m like the hashtag #KickCOVID-19′sButt,” she added.
Many of Bend’s patients at River City Rehab are some of the most vulnerable members of society.
“Taking the shot, I feel like it was what I had to do,” she said.
Cox Media Group
