COVID-19 vaccine

Demand for COVID-19 Vaccines Declining in South Florida

A drop in demand and an increase in access to shots have led some major health networks to scale back.

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In South Florida, there is a new challenge on the vaccine front — over the past week, there’s been a decline in demand.

Experts say the rush to get the vaccine is not where it should be.

“Across the country, that’s roughly 3 million doses per day are administered and what we’ve seen in the last seven days or roughly the last week that rolling average of daily administrations has declined," said Dr. Tom Macaluso of Memorial Regional Hospital

A drop in demand and an increase in access to shots have led some major health networks to scale back.

Jackson Health Systems announced that they are ending their public vaccine program. April 30 is the last day they are giving out first shots. Broward Health is also following suit, suspending first doses after April 23.

So far over 4 million Floridians are fully vaccinated, but that’s still not enough to reach herd immunity. And Covid hospitalizations are up in South Florida.

“We’re seeing new cases every day and we’re still in a dangerous place in terms of the number of new cases," Dr. Macaluso said. "Because of that, the primary tool to prevent this ongoing pandemic and to get us back to normal is through vaccination.”

Dr. Macaluso says initially the older population came out in droves to get their shot — but those between 25 to 40 years old don’t seem as motivated.

FIU epidemiology professor Dr. Miguel Angel Cano conducted a study where 65% of participants who identify as Hispanic say they got the vaccine to protect their family. But there were still some on the fence.

"As far as reasons why some of the participants indicated that they didn’t want to get vaccinated, the primary reason was that they had heard negative information about the vaccine," Dr. Cano said.

Health professionals in the community are trying to ease any concerns for those who are still hesitant about getting the vaccine.

“It’s probably the best strategy that we have to contain the pandemic and protect ourselves individually from getting Covid," Dr. Cano said.

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