COVID-19 Vaccine Rollout Ramps Up From Massive Sites to Mobile Units

Americans are once again showing that, when challenged, they know how to roll up their sleeves and get the job done.

In this case, the challenge is to roll out the COVID-19 vaccine across the country. Sleeves have certainly been rolling up with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reporting on March 28, 2021, that 93.6 million people have received at least one dose of the vaccine, including 51.6 million people who have been fully vaccinated by the two-dose series made by Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech or by the Johnson & Johnson’s single-dose vaccine. Vaccine providers are now administering nearly 3 million doses per day on average, leading to the nation successfully meeting President Biden’s goal of 100 million COVID-19 vaccinations in his first 100 days in office.

Convinced that Americans can keep up the vaccination pace, Biden has now proposed a goal of 200 million vaccinations in his first 100 days.

“I know it’s ambitious — twice our original goal — but no other country in the world has come close … to what we’re doing,” Biden told reporters as he opened his first news conference as president, according to CNBC. “I believe we can do it.”

If Biden’s goal is met it will be the continued impressiveness of the logistics of administering the vaccine as providers are using everything from enormous sports stadium sites for massive sites to mobile medical units set up in rural fields.

Vaccination Ingenuity: From Old School Buses to Aircraft Carriers

Vaccine providers across the nation have gotten creative, turning everything from old school buses to active aircraft carriers into COVID-19 vaccine sites, and are utilizing open spaces from iconic, like Disneyland’s parking lot, to any location that is available, like commercial district alleyways in Washington, D.C.

Politico, in a March 24, 2021 article “Unusual Places Where Americans are Being Vaccinated,” profiled such locales as:

  • 2,900 Pfizer vaccines were administered to sailors aboard the USS Carl Vinson aircraft carrier in San Diego.
  • Over 10,000 seniors in two days were vaccinated at a drive-through vaccination site in the parking lot of Coors Field baseball stadium in Denver.
  • Residents in Philadelphia were vaccinated on stage at the Theatre of Living Arts in the South Street neighborhood.
  • Over 100,000 shots have been given in the parking lot at the Disneyland Resort in California.
  • Old North Church in Boston – famous for Paul Revere’s “One if by Land, Two if by Sea” ride – has been a vaccination site.
  • An old school bus in Inglewood, California was retrofitted to become a vaccination site.
  • A makeshift clinic was set up in an alley behind an urgent care facility in Washington, D.C.
  • United Airlines set up a vaccination clinic at O’Hare International Airport in Chicago.

Sports Venues Step Up to the Vaccination Plate With Mobile Specialty Vehicles

While sports venues have been largely silent of fans during the COVID-19 pandemic, sports leagues and franchises have stepped up to the plate, offering their venues and generous parking lots as vaccination sites.

In addition to Coors Field in Denver, other sports venue vaccination sites have included:

  • Hard Rock Stadium, home of the Miami Dolphins in Florida
  • Gillette Stadium, home of the New England Patriots in Massachusetts
  • State Farm Stadium, home of the Arizona Cardinals
  • Texas Motor Speedway, home of NASCAR and IndyCar races
  • Mercedes-Benz Stadium, home of the Atlanta Falcons in Georgia
  • Bank of America Stadium, home of the Carolina Panthers in North Carolina
  • NRG Stadium, home of the Houston Texans
  • The Big House, University of Michigan’s football stadium
  • Broadbent Arena, former hockey stadium in Kentucky
  • Fenway Park, home of the Boston Red Sox in Massachusetts
  • Yankee Stadium, home of the New York Yankees
  • Dodger Stadium, home of the Los Angeles Dodgers in California
  • Minute Maid Park, home of the Houston Astros in Texas

Mobile Specialty Medical Units Bring Vaccines on the Road

Not every American lives or works near mass vaccination sites, so an emerging trend is mobile vaccine clinics which can go on the road to provide vaccinations to underserved populations. In Georgia, for example, a mobile clinic in tiny Webster County set up a vaccination unit outside of a grocery store in Preston so residents, like peanut farmer Gerue Reliford, Jr., could get a vaccine.

“I just jumped in my truck and came over,” Reliford told NPR.

On the other side of the country, it was strawberry fields farmworkers in Carlsbad, California taking advantage of vaccines offered by mobile units at the farms. Almost every state has mobile specialty medical units setting up pop-up vaccinations clinics:

  • Ohio Governor Mike DeWine announced that the state’s mobile vaccine clinic will host two clinics in Meigs County in April.
  • Eastern Star Church was hosting mobile vaccine clinics in Indianapolis.
  • Arizona health officials in Pima County are using data to decide where to send mobile vaccine clinics to target certain groups such as older people of color.
  • Rural counties in Texas were able to take advantage of mobile clinics operated by the Texas National Guard.
  • The VA used its mobile medical unit in Washington state to set up a drive-thru clinic at the Little Creek Casino Resort.
  • A combination of mass clinics and mobile units is a hybrid approach taken by some with Detroit offering 5,000 vaccine doses each day at Ford Field while adding another 1,000 doses via mobile clinics.

Contact Mobile Specialty Vehicles today to find out how we can design a state-of-the-art mobile medical unit that can act as a standalone mobile health center for your organization, providing vaccinations, health screenings, and more.

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