The Naples Senior Center hosts a refresher clinic by appointment only

At 102 years old, Joseph Innes is no longer surprising, not even the COVID-19 pandemic.

“That wasn’t a problem,” he said.

When the Air Force veteran, who flew B-17 planes in World War II, got his vaccination booster at the Naples Senior Center on Monday, his reaction was succinct: “I felt nothing.”

The nonprofit, which offers social services programs to around 1,400 members aged 60 and over, opened a refresher clinic for people aged 65 and over on Monday in partnership with the Collier County’s State Department of Health.

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Refreshing injections are only possible by appointment and the next consultation hour takes place on Wednesday from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. The center is located at 5025 Castello Drive.

The center’s staff are contacting the 7,400 community seniors who helped them register for the vaccine when the vaccinations first became available in early January.

The plan is to offer the boosters to those who were helped with the first series of vaccines, said Jaclynn Faffer, president and chief executive officer of the senior center. Employees turn to the oldest seniors first and ask if they need the booster.

When the vaccine became available to Florida’s seniors in January, online registration was a challenge for many, and appointments at Publix, the health department, and other locations were nearly impossible for seniors at risk to get.

The senior center was the registration source for many elderly residents in the community, not just their members, to receive the Moderna vaccine in the Department of Health’s field operation in the North Collier Regional Park.

When the center started taking booster phone calls, Faffer said she had decided to contact the health department to set up booster clinics.

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100 appointments were scheduled on Monday, and that should be the number for future clinics, she said. There is no scheduled time when the booster clinics will stop, she said.

Although it’s easier to get a booster shot than when the vaccines first became available, seniors are familiar with the center, she said.

“They like to come to us and I am so happy that we do,” she said. “We really have become the central address for senior services.”

All 20 staff and 225 volunteers had to get vaccinated when the center reopened in August, she said. The center runs about 30% of its programs. The temperatures are checked and a mask is required.

Approximately 14 million Floridians have been vaccinated, including nearly 4.6 million people aged 65 and over, according to the state DOH’s weekly report on October 28. That is a vaccination rate of 89% for this age group. The overall vaccination rate for all age groups is 73%.

Cases have decreased dramatically since the delta variant surge in August and September. The state reported 12,880 new cases for the week ended October 28, with a positivity rate of 3%.

The state’s cumulative case volume since the pandemic began in 2020 is 3,647,277, according to the DOH.

Seniors are happy about boosters

Innes, who moved to Naples from Washington DC in 2005, where he previously worked for the US Department of Transportation and Ford Motor Co., said he was delighted to receive his booster.

“It was painless and gives me security,” he said.

“The first 100 years were easy,” is how he sums up his longevity.

Lisa Adamczyk, director of nursing at the health department, said the center’s work was helpful.

“I think it’s very beneficial to be in a place you know,” she said.

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Joy and Jerald Spivak, who moved to Naples from New Jersey in 2000, were grateful that the center was helping with the boosters, just like with the appointments for the original vaccine series.

“I don’t think we would have got it without this organization,” said Joy Spivak, 79. “It was the light at the end of the tunnel.”

With no family around, they lived in a state of panic over contracting COVID-19, she said. But after they got vaccinated, and now the booster vaccination, they have started dating more vaccinated friends, she said

“We are very careful at our age,” she says.

Charlene and John Wagner, 84 and 93 years old respectively, who returned from Ohio in early October, were delighted when they received the call from the center about the booster shots.

“You are doing a fantastic job,” she said. “We are happy that we have it behind us.”

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