ST. LOUIS — Friday marked day two of the St. Louis mass vaccination event at St. Louis Community College-Forest Park.
Early reports indicated things went better than on day one, when some people missed their appointments while waiting in long lines.
After she got her vaccination, Jane Barber said, “The line moved at a nice, comfortable pace. I feel like I’ve waited in lines longer than this at Disney World.”
The line for the “one-and-done” Johnson & Johnson vaccine stretched outside of the building and through two levels of the parking garage.
But that was by design to keep people out of the weather.
A Missouri Air National Guard soldier could be heard telling people as they arrived on the premises, “Have your confirmation email ready to go. It will be the one from the health department, not the one from the job form. We’re going to verify you guys right over here.”
While the lines were long, the wait was much shorter.
Missouri Air National Guard Master Sgt. Kirsten Inwood explained.
“Things are going much better today; that’s partially because we realized people where sharing that personalized RSVP and we can’t do that. Those RSVP’s are sent out to specific individuals who fulfilled the tier requirement.”
St. Louis Health Director Dr. Fredrick Echols said, “We are still working with our community partners and individuals to limit the number of people who are coming who do not have an appointment. That’s been a huge challenge for us over the last day or so, because individuals were forwarding the link to others. So we’re instructing people, as they receive the notification it’s important they don’t share the link with others.”
The event got good reviews from people who got vaccinated.
Yacine Anane said, “It was good; about an hour wait to get in. Another half-hour once inside there. Not a big deal.”
Samuel Alexander added, “Yeah, everything was going very smoothly. They did a great job.”
“I think it took about an hour, total, from when I started,” said Nicole Latham.
Echols said health officials were hoping to vaccinate 3,500 people Friday. Organizers vaccinated about 3,500 on Thursday, as well, for a total of nearly 7,000 at the mass vaccination event.