Lydia Mcaliley found joy in the long queue. She says the wait was worth every second to get her COVID-19 vaccination.
‘It was a great day. I feel blessed, ”she said.
She joined thousands of people in Philadelphia to take their first recording of the consortium, which opened the Liacouras Center at Temple University from 12:00 noon Friday to 12:00 noon Saturday.
“It feels good to know that all these people are building their immunity through our efforts. So maybe a little bit physically tired, but not fatigued,” said Dr. Ala Stanford, who founded the consortium.
She says the crowd never gave in. At night, they brought patients into the arena in waves of 30 and from the cold. The consortium had 2500 doses to give and realized that would not be enough. The city delivered another 2,000 doses around 1 a.m.
“We could not have foreseen that there would be hundreds, literally hundreds of people here, between midnight and 6 am, and there was no downtime at all during this 24 hour period,” she said.
Members of the Philadelphia Eagles staff, along with mascot Swoop, surprised the hundreds waiting in line early Saturday with Dunkin ‘coffee and hot chocolate.
The consortium opened the clinic to the city’s most vulnerable; those in phase 1b who also live in 20 Philadelphia zip codes with high COVID positivity rates.
“It was much easier to take than the flu shot or the pneumonia. I didn’t even feel it. I was like, ‘Oh, you already put it in!’” Said Bryan Jeffrey Daniels of South Philadelphia.
He and his sister initially came to the line on Friday, but with the snow and rain they decided to leave and come back.
“Knowing I got the chance, I’m happy,” said Diann Jones of West Philadelphia. She waited four hours on Saturday morning. She let two family members die from the virus, and she is waiting for the day when she could be protected.
“I’ve been praying for this, at least to get a vaccine so we can regain a sense of normalcy,” she said.
Dr. Stanford says everyone vaccinated at this clinic has their second injection scheduled for the week of March 22.
The consortium will decide together with the city and the Liacouras Center whether there will be another marathon clinic.
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