Here are some of the top stories from the last week from NBC 6 News:
Unable to Get a Vaccine Appointment, Some Turn to Leftover Doses
As of Thursday, over 2.1 million people had received the COVID-19 vaccine in Florida. It is unclear how many of them got a leftover dose, which is offered by some providers when patients cancel or don’t show up to their vaccine appointments.
Broward County Commissioner Dale Holness told NBC 6 leftover vaccines are limited. The 63-year-old said he got a leftover vaccine at a January pop-up vaccination event.
In January, the state reported only a small number of COVID-19 doses – 3,344 – had been wasted either because the vials had broken or because they had been thawed out and unable to be administered within the recommended time for use.
Get South Florida local news, weather forecasts and entertainment stories to your inbox. Sign up for NBC South Florida newsletters.
Local
Many Don't Know How They Caught COVID-19 in Miami-Dade: Report
NBC 6 Investigators obtained a state analysis of the contact tracing efforts in Miami-Dade County in the last half of 2020.
In a questionnaire, the Florida Department of Health asked 10,817 people in the county how they caught the virus from July 6 to Dec. 16. According to the report, 137 people declined to answer the interviewer’s questions.
Contact tracing is the interview process health workers do to try and find who an infected person came in contact with. NBC 6 Investigators obtained the report titled “FLDOH MDC Contact Tracing Extended Questionnaire” through Florida Sunshine Laws.
Mothers Say Sons Were Exposed to Sexual Content on Popular Chat
Looking to socialize with other kids during a pandemic that has them pretty much isolated, two teens logged onto Omegle.com - a site where they can “talk to strangers.”
Their mothers, who asked us to conceal their identities to protect their 13-year-old sons, say a friend of the boys told them they could meet new kids in the chat but didn’t warn them they could be exposed to inappropriate content.
The mothers we interviewed say their kids were instantly connected to adults who were engaging in lewd acts. On its homepage, Omegle acknowledges “predators have been known” to use the site.
Devastating Emotional Toll of Shooting Drove Some Teachers Away From MSD
Relaxing on the porch with her two Great Pyrenees dogs in Central Florida, Marcy Cunningham feels light years away from the terror.
She was teaching English at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School on Feb. 14, 2018. Cunningham heard the shots and screams, but still thought, maybe the drama department was staging a realistic drill. The waves of emotional trauma eventually drove her and Cunningham away from Douglas High, away from the building, which still sits like a scar on the campus.
Wherever they are now, the teachers who were inside that building keep in touch with each other, and often, with their students as well. They have a bond forged by surviving the unimaginable.
Illuminate Coral Gables to Transform City Streets Into Outdoor Museum
A new art event in Coral Gables will be transforming the city's streets into an outdoor museum.
Illuminate Coral Gables runs until mid-March and features interactive art, video projections and light sculptures. The free experience is outdoors-only amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
