Lydia Mcaliley found joy in driving hours. She says the wait was worth every second to get her COVID-19 vaccination.
“It was a wonderful day. I feel blessed,” she said.
She joined thousands of people in Philadelphia to get their first admission from the consortium, which opened the Liacouras Center at Temple University from Friday 12 to Saturday at 12 p.m.
“It feels good to know that all these people are building up their immunity as a result of our efforts. So maybe a little physically tired, but not tired,” said Dr. Ala Stanford, who founded the consortium, said.
She says the crowd never gave in. Overnight, they brought patients in waves of 30 and out of the cold to the arena. The consortium had 2,500 doses to give and realized that would not be enough. The city delivered about 2,000 doses around 1 p.m.
“We could not foresee that there would be hundreds, literally hundreds of people here, between midnight and six, and there was no downtime in this 24 hour period,” she said.
Members of the Philadelphia Eagles ‘staff, along with the mascot Swoop, surprised the hundreds in the queue early Saturday with Dunkin’ coffee and hot chocolate.
The consortium has opened the clinic for the most vulnerable in the city; those in Phase 1b who also live in 20 Philadelphia zip codes with high COVID positivity.
“It was a lot easier to take than the flu shot or the pneumonia. I did not even feel it. I was like, ‘Oh, you put it in there already!'” Said Bryan Jeffrey Daniels of South Philadelphia.
He and his sister initially got on the line Friday, but with the snow and rain, they decided to leave and come back.
“I know I’m getting the chance, and I’m happy,” said Diann Jones of West Philadelphia. She waited four hours on Saturday morning. She killed two family members because of the virus, and she is waiting for the day she can be protected.
“It’s something I prayed for, at least to get a vaccine so we could be normal again,” she said.
Dr Stanford says that everyone who is vaccinated in this clinic is planning their second shot for the week of March 22nd.
The consortium will work with the city and the Liacouras Center to decide if there will be another marathon clinic.
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