Orange County will use the Toy Story parking lot at the Disneyland Resort to stage its first mass vaccination site, the county announced last night. It will be one of many vaccination sites employed throughout the state, as California looks to expand public deployment of Covid-19 vaccines beyond hospitals and nursing homes.
"The Disneyland Resort, the largest employer in the heart of Orange County, has stepped up to host the county’s first Super POD [Point-of-Dispensing] site – undertaking a monumental task in our vaccination distribution process," Orange County Acting Chairman Andrew Do said. "We truly appreciate the support of the Orange County Fire Authority, our cities, and our residents as we continue to rollout Covid-19 vaccinations throughout the county."
In Los Angeles County, authorities will use the parking lot at Dodger Stadium as a vaccination site, converting it from its current use as a Covid testing facility. Big, empty parking lots - such as those found next to closed theme parks and sports stadiums - make perfect locations for mass vaccination or testing, as they offer plenty of space to work and relatively easy traffic access for the public. The Dodger Stadium site should be able to vaccinate up to 12,000 people a day, according to officials.
If you live in California, do keep in mind that these facilities will not offer drive-in vaccinations to anyone. They will continue to abide by the state's multi-phase plan for who gets the vaccine and when. But the large-scale public facilities are needed now that the state is ready to vaccinate larger and larger numbers of people, including those who work or live outside of health care facilities. Only people with appointments will be vaccinated.
Details should be coming soon about how people will make those appointments to go to the Toy Story lot or Dodger Stadium or whatever is the appropriate location to get their vaccination. But counties needed to line up these facilities before they could issue those instructions to the public.
So, as always, stay tuned.
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Parents: Hey, kids...we're going to Disneyland today...
Kids: YAY!
Parents:...to get shots!
Vaccines have not been tested in children, and I don't think any health agency is recommending that kids get vaccinated right now or any time in the near future.
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This is good on multiple levels as Disney helping out can smooth things over and of course, faster vaccinations the better.
Hey, make it better for any kids, characters dressed in doctor outfits to put folks at ease and "see, this helps the park open faster."