UF Health Jacksonville vaccinates more than 700 health care workers Wednesday

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — More than 700 health care workers got their first dose of the Pfizer vaccine at UF Health Jacksonville on Wednesday.

“It’s no different than the flu vaccine, a little stick and a burn,” Andrew Rockafellow, a health care worker, said.

UF Health has around 20,000 doses it’s administering to health care workers. The vaccine will roll out to other local hospitals like Baptist Health and Mayo Clinic starting on Thursday.

On Monday, UF Health had one station. On Tuesday, it had two stations administering the vaccine, and Wednesday, on day three, it had 12 stations giving out the vaccine to health care workers.

So far, the side-effects have been very mild.

“The only thing that we’ve heard consistently is soreness on the arm,” Dr. Leon Haley, CEO of UF Health, said.

RELATED STORIES: UF Health CEO among first to get Pfizer vaccine | FDA approves emergency authorization of Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine

UF Health told Action News Jax it’s a delicate process.

The pharmacy technicians determine how many doses they need to pull out of their ultra-cold freezer.

After 30 minutes, the vaccine thaws to room temperature.

“Once they’re diluted, they’re good at room temperature for six hours,” Berni Belgado, the director of UF Pharmacy at UF Health, said.

Once they pull the doses out of each vial, they’re delivered to the vaccinators to administer to frontline workers like Rockafellow.

“Since I work here, I have family that’s a little bit older that I don’t pass anything along to them and I would like things to go back to normal at some point too,” Rockafellow said.

In 21 days, the health care workers will return for the second dose of the Pfizer vaccine. They have until Tuesday to register and get the vaccine.

About 40% of its employees opted to sign up for the vaccine so far, but more are registering each day, the hospital told Action News Jax.

At last check Wednesday, about 2,500 employees have signed up. That’s out of more than 6,000 employees.

Cox Media Group