Low turnout at vaccine event frustrates some

Of 1,000 vials available, only 210 shots were given at private school

Employees from the Lake County Health Department sat in a cool gymnasium with enough vials of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine to inject 1,000 people. Hours passed, and only 210 showed up.

Rae Bailey was one of the lucky ones. She heard about the March 6 event from a friend, who saw it first in a private post on Facebook: Montverde Academy, a private school in Lake County, was rumored to be vaccinating eligible people for a few hours that day.

“Vaccines available right now,” the post read. “No wait!!!”

There was nothing on the Lake County or Town of Montverde websites to confirm the site existed, but 64-year-old Bailey drove to the campus with a doctor’s note in hand.

The parking lot was empty. She walked into the gym and looked around.

“There was nobody in there,” Bailey said. “There were just people there to give shots, but nobody to give shots to.”

Noelda Lopez, a spokesperson for the county health department, said the event was intended to be a “closed pod,” an opportunity for just private school employees to be vaccinated.

Vials containing the remaining 790 doses weren’t opened or wasted, Lopez said. But some who

attended said they wished the doses could have been administered instead.

“It just was a shame that there weren’t more people aware of it,” Bailey said. “It just seemed all so haphazard.”

Closed pods are private vaccination sites for a particular group, like law enforcement staff or teachers. They are not advertised to the public like open pods are.

The county offered other closed-pod vaccination opportunities for teachers during the week prior, Lopez said. The health department and school administrators organized the event at Montverde Academy as an opportunity for private school employees alone.

When asked why private school employees needed a separate event when they were also eligible to participate in closed-pod events available for public school teachers the week prior, Lopez didn’t say.

Because of the low turnout and extra doses, no eligible person was turned away at Montverde Academy, she added. Anyone who arrived with the proper documentation — private school employee or not — was given the vaccine. Perhaps due to the limited advertising, few did.

“The town knew nothing about the COVID shots,” said BJ Cowan, the Town of

Montverde’s finance technician.

Paul Larino, the town manager, said he heard about the event in passing a few days before it was held. He wasn’t given much detail and didn’t ask for more.

“I was told it was a clinic geared toward teachers,” he said. “I didn’t take it any further.”

Larino said he believed teachers from neighboring schools may have been invited to the event, but a spokesperson for Lake County Schools said they were never informed.

“Most times, such communications come through my office,” Sherri Owens said. “But I did not receive anything.”

Owens said a Montverde Academy employee contacted her a few weeks before and mentioned hosting a vaccination event, but there was never any follow up.

Stephanie Steele, an English teacher at Eustis High School in Lake County, said she would have liked to attend the event if she had heard about it.

“I’m going to have to drive an hour to get to Valencia,” she said, referring to the FEMA-run mass vaccination site on Valencia College’s west campus in Orlando. “I can’t get an appointment online because I’m at school when pharmacies post their appointments at 7 a.m.”