Young Adults Rush To Get Vaccinations; Can State Meet Demand?

FLORIDA — With the opening of vaccine eligibility to all Florida adults, young adults in their teens and 20s are rushing to vaccination clinics for their turn to receive the seemingly magical elixir that will protect them from the coronavirus and allow them to resume their social lives.

As of Monday, 6,357,049 people have been vaccinated in Florida including:

• 16-24 years old - 133,140
• 25-34 years old - 296,669
• 35-44 years old - 469,315
• 45-54 years old - 764,742
• 55-64 years old - 1,299,018
• 65-74 years old - 1,902,745
• 75-84 years old - 1,109,909
• 85 years old and older - 381,511

The eligibility of residents age 18 and older adds 5.2 million more residents to the eligibility list, leaving residents wondering if Florida will receive enough allotments of vaccine from the Department of Health and Human Resources to fill the demand.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, specific amounts of COVID-19 vaccine doses are allocated to states based on the number of people living there who are age 18 and older.

Generally, the greatest number of vaccine shots are sent to California followed by Texas and Florida in third place. Wyoming receives the fewest doses.

These state allocations are separate from the allocations sent to sites run by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (there are four FEMA sites in Florida giving about 1,000 first-dose shots per day) and to federally approved community health centers, hospitals and pharmacy partners such as CVS and Walgreens.

The federal government ships allocations of the vaccine to states starting each Sunday although the entire order may not arrive in one shipment. For the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines, which require two doses to be effective, states receive an equal number of first and second doses of the vaccine.

From there, the individual state determines how much vaccine is sent to each county.

For the week starting April 5, Florida received 573,300 doses of Pfizer, 434,800 doses of Moderna and 313,200 doses of Johnson & Johnson totaling 1,321,300 doses of vaccine.

That's slightly higher than the March 29 shipment to Florida, which included 704,340 doses of Pfizer, 416,000 doses of Moderna and 122,900 doses of Johnson & Johnson for a total of 1,243,240 doses of vaccine.

Despite the increase in the number of residents eligible to receive vaccines this week, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said he expects the demand for vaccines to go down because younger adults don't feel the urgency to get vaccinated that the more vulnerable population of senior citizens felt.

“I think there is going to be a much less percentage of 25-year-olds that want it than 75-year-olds, and honestly that’s sensible because the risk is much different,” DeSantis said. “So I don’t think you’re going to get above 50 percent of people that are under 50, and I think it may even be less than that.”

According to the Pew Research Center, only 18 percent of Americans age 18 to 29 say they're "very concerned" about contracting the coronavirus in contrast to 25 percent of Americans age 65 and older.

Even among seniors age 55 and older, DeSantis said the best he expects is to have 80 percent vaccinated because there is still a segment of the population that is opposed to vaccinations.

"Once we get into April and see production increases, I think you're going to get into a situation where the vaccines are widely available, but I think the demand for them will be a fraction of what it is for older people," he said.

President Joe Biden’s administration has been working to secure enough of a supply of two-dose vaccines by Moderna and Pfizer and the single-dose Johnson & Johnson vaccine to cover the U.S. population by the end of July.

According to the Pew Research Center, 69 percent of Americans say they plan to be vaccinated, up from 60 percent in November.

One of the biggest changes is in the Black population.

A majority of Black Americans (61 percent) now say they plan to get a vaccine or have already received one, up sharply from 42 percent in November.

Of those Americans who told the Pew Research Center that they don't plan to get vaccinated, the top reasons were concerns about side effects (72 percent), concerns about the FDA approving the vaccine so quickly (67 percent) and a desire to get more information before getting vaccinated (61 percent). Thirty-six percent said they are opposed to getting vaccines.

Of the younger adults choosing to be vaccinated, the majority said they wanted to be vaccinated for altruistic reasons - mainly, to protect parents, grandparents and vulnerable friends.

Few young adults polled said they want the vaccine so they're free to return to crowded bars and music venues without worrying about contracting the virus.

Current Florida Coronavirus Statistics

As of Monday, 2,046,280 Florida residents have tested positive for the coronavirus since the pandemic began in March 2020 with 85,800 people experiencing symptoms that required hospitalization and 33,710 deaths.

After a low positivity rate of just above 5 percent last month, the state's positivity rate has crept up to 7.37 percent as of Monday. The state received 48,494 test results on Monday and just 3,572 were positive for the coronavirus.

See related stories:

• Florida Governor Hopes To Open Up Vaccines To All Adults In April
• FL Teens Age 16, 17 Will Be Eligible For Pfizer Vaccine In April