Ashley Jones, armed with a large Dunkin’ coffee, braved the 40-degree weather Thursday morning for a COVID-19 vaccine at Mercedes-Benz Stadium.
The 32-year-old and was among the few dozen people in line without an appointment hoping to get their first or second shots. Fulton County officials began offering walk-up shots last week.
That’s quite a change from just months ago when the country was concerned about supply. Now, the stadium has more needles than arms.
Through Wednesday, the county had jabbed 11,272 people without an appointment, said Matthew Kallmyer, director of Atlanta-Fulton County Emergency Management Agency. Like a barbershop or restaurant, appointments are preferred, but they say the take-all-comers approach is worth the logistical under-taking, considering it could be life or death.
Kallmyer said the county started walk-up appointments at the stadium after seeing a dip in those making appointments.
When walk-up demand declines, Kallmyer said the idea is to hit the streets with mobile units.
“There’s a huge level of distrust,” he said.
Jones understands. She hasn’t hugged her mother, who believes the coronavirus is a conspiracy theory, in a year and a half.
“It’s not something to play around with,” said Jones, a mother herself.
The reason the stadium can handle Jones and so many others is because Mercedes-Benz is hosting an eight-week mega-site, supplied by the Federal Emergency Management Agency. They can do 42,000 shots a week.
With access to two MARTA stations and 3,000 free parking spots from the Georgia World Congress Center, use of Mercedes-Benz was key when the county staff was pitching FEMA to give them the Southeast’s only mega-site.
“Any time you remove barriers to access you’re going to reach new populations of people. And with walk-up appointments, we’re reaching people who may have an irregular schedule … or maybe people who didn’t have good access to the internet or (poor) internet skills,” said Dr. David Holland, chief clinical officer with Fulton Health.
Credit: Ben Gray
Credit: Ben Gray
John Allen, the FEMA site lead, said none of the other 10 mega-sites have hit 10,000 daily doses — which Mercedes-Benz has done twice.
He said FEMA headquarters has nicknamed Mercedes-Benz “the machine.”
Dietmar Exler, former Mercedes-Benz USA and current chief operating officer who oversees the stadium, analyzed footage to see how they could speed up the operation.
He saw in January that those giving the vaccine were wasting time for people to take off their jackets. So they decided to put another seat at the other end of the table and give the person administering the shot a chair with wheels so they could easily handle two patients at once.
Exler said he was nervous at first with the number of agencies coming together.
The stadium is buzzing with Fulton Health staff, hundreds of Fort Stewart soldiers in fatigues and 20-somethings contracted through Sean Penn’s emergency relief organization CORE.
“We were afraid there were too many parties,” Exler said. Now? “We can really move mountains if we work together,” he said.
Credit: Ben Gray
Credit: Ben Gray
When asked why he felt the 700 staff members all worked so well together, FEMA’s Allen said because everyone knows the stakes.
“Somebody you know was immediately affected,” he said.
Kallmyer said it’s also a combination of the county’s tactical know-how and the customer service expertise of Mercedes-Benz.
“We’re not people-movers,” Kallmyer said. “We don’t know the science of that like they do.”
The hours for walk-up appointments vary, so check online at https://www.fultoncountyga.gov/covidvaccine.
