Allergic reactions in some Moderna vaccine recipients caused delays at San Diego County’s new “Vaccination Super Station” near downtown Petco Park on Wednesday, County health officials confirmed.
Just after 11am, NBC 7 confirmed that some people waiting for their vaccines at the Tailgate Park site were delayed. Others said they had been rejected.
NBC 7 contacted those running the station; a representative said the delay lasted about an hour due to logistical issues related to more doses of the vaccine arriving at the site.
During the county weekly COVID-19 briefing, Dr. Eric McDonald, the province’s director of epidemiology, said vaccinations were delayed after allergic reactions were detected in six vaccine recipients.
While allergic reactions are expected in massive vaccination surgeries, that number seen Wednesday was slightly higher than expected for that period, so the Super Station delayed vaccinations so they could investigate, said Dr. McDonald. The site also swapped the vaccines it was using for a new batch out of a plethora of caution, in case the reactions were related to the original batch.
A county spokesman confirmed that the vaccines linked to the allergic reactions were from Moderna, one of two pharmaceutical companies with FDA-approved COVID-19 vaccines.
The Super Station has contingencies for every type of response. It’s too early in the study to know exactly what triggered the allergic reactions, said Dr. McDonald.
Chairman of the Board of Trustees, Nathan Fletcher, said the site would continue to administer vaccines on Wednesday and remain open late to honor all agreements.
The county’s new “Vaccination Super Station” is now operational in Tailgate Park, where UCSD Health staff will administer thousands of vaccines daily to health workers.
The location is a collaboration between the county, the Padres and UC San Diego Health in an effort to quickly roll out the coronavirus vaccine and deliver as many shots as possible to eligible residents.
The site has been launched with the goal of immunizing 5,000 health workers daily, with the goal of administering the coronavirus vaccine to those considered to be in the Phase 1A tier of the state’s vaccine priority list.
Healthcare workers from dialysis centers, primary health clinics, dental facilities and more are now eligible for the coronavirus vaccine. UC San Diego Health employees will administer the vaccines at the new Super Station.
SkyRanger 7 gives us a glimpse of the new vaccination “Super Station” that opened near Petco Park on January 11, 2021 with the goal of vaccinating 5,000 health workers daily who are part of the province’s Phase 1A tier.
The new site has 42 tents, including four walk-up tents. The goal on the opening day was to vaccinate 2,500 health workers.
Officials hoped to increase that number to at least 5,000 health workers a day and eventually vaccinate 500,000 health workers across the region.
Fletcher said the Super Station would continue to work by vaccinating health workers. Fletcher hopes the site can expand vaccinations to residents 65 or older in the future.
“We are not done with our caregivers yet and we will continue to work,” said Fletcher.
Denise Foster, Chief Nursing Officer for San Diego County, said Monday the site was expecting an initial shipment of more than 50,000 doses.
A “large portion” of the doses would be the Moderna vaccine, Foster said, with the rest being the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine.
San Diego’s Vaccination Super Station is part of a larger trend across California as counties seek to ramp up vaccination efforts as COVID-19 cases continue to increase.
California is transforming baseball stadiums, fairgrounds, and even a parking lot at Disneyland Resort in Orange County into massive vaccination sites.