State hires company to administer Pfizer vaccine to assisted living facilities

George Schoenfeld is tired of waiting.

The 91-year-old man feels forgotten after the state and his facility has failed to vaccinate him and his fellow residents at the assisted living facility Brookdale North Naples.

“We’ve been waiting and waiting and waiting,” Schoenfeld said. “In December we were told in the next month to three weeks we would be getting the vaccine. And then that expired. And it just hasn’t happened.”

Schoenfeld said he is tired of getting notices letting him know he will get the vaccine.

Brookdale planned to get the vaccine from CVS until the state-mandated they move to a statewide program instead. Brookdale now said the shot in the arm could come as soon as this week from a Miami-based company named CDR Maguire, a company chosen by the state to administer the Pfizer vaccine to about 1,900 assisted living facilities. The governor’s office said their plan is for all 4,000 long-term care facilities to be offered the vaccine by the end of January. As of Sunday, 95% of Florida nursing homes had gotten at least the first dose of the vaccine compared to 29% of assisted living facilities.

“We’re finally going to get registered to receive the vaccine but we don’t have an actual date yet,” he said. “I’m wondering why we fell through the cracks and how many other long-term care facilities have fallen through the cracks.”

Schoenfeld continues to anxiously wait for this turn.

He hopes to be able to see his grandchildren again and tell them stories about their parents growing up and “all kinds of things.