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Petco Park vaccination super station closed again due to Moderna delay

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Posted at 3:58 PM, Feb 26, 2021
and last updated 2021-03-01 08:52:36-05

SAN DIEGO (KGTV) — The same day the county is set to allow teachers, law enforcement, and food workers to get the coronavirus vaccine, the Petco Park vaccination super station closed once again.

The site, which is the county's largest vaccine distribution location, will be closed starting on Saturday, Feb. 27 through Tuesday, March 2, according to a county spokesperson. The closure is due to a nationwide shortage of Moderna coronavirus vaccine doses, the spokesperson added.

Appointments that were scheduled for this weekend into early next week at the site are being rescheduled. Those individuals will be notified through the county's MyChart system to pick a rescheduled date.

RELATED: San Diego County adding half a million Phase 1B residents to vaccine eligibility on Saturday

The county spokesperson said that vaccinations for teachers will not be impacted since those are being administered through a different system. It wasn't immediately clear how the closure will impact other groups becoming eligible on Saturday, including police officers and food workers.

Any of the county-run vaccination sites currently administering Pfizer vaccines will also not be impacted.

This is the second-straight weekend that the Petco Park distribution site has experienced a closure. The site closed Sunday, Feb. 14 through Tuesday, Feb. 16, after a shipment of Moderna vaccines was delayed. The site closed again from Saturday, Feb. 19 through Monday, Feb. 22, after a winter storm delayed vaccine shipments around the country.

Mitra Jamshidi showed up to Petco Park Saturday the 27th, not realizing the vaccination site was closed. She said her second Moderna dose had already been postponed one time, and this most recent closure meant a second delay.

"I’m not trusting really if they’re going to do it next week or not, I don’t know what to do," said Jamshidi, concerned about getting her second dose within the 42-day window that's recommended by the CDC.

She is not alone. ABC 10News has received dozens of emails from people who also have been delayed multiple times and are concerned about the timeline.

"I’ve tried everywhere. The other day I spent five hours on the computer trying to get the second shot of Moderna. I know there’s availability for Pfizer but not Moderna," said Lynne Camboo, who got her first dose from Vons then had her second dose canceled.

In an interview this past week, Family Health Centers of San Diego's Doctor Christian Ramers said people should try to stay within the recommend windows, but added that there are studies being done that analyze that 42-day window.

"It’s not really based on much data at all, that’s just sort of their recommendation so it’s not like day 43 something magical or different happens, so really as soon as possible or within those six weeks is what we should shoot for," said Dr. Ramers.

He said recent studies have shown a single dose of two-part vaccines is actually more effective than initially thought, with more than 90% protection possible. The issue is that it's unclear how long that effectiveness will last without a second dose. He said some studies in the UK are extending the second dose out to multiple months and seeing promising results.

"We would like it to not be delayed because we want to stick to what the clinical trial told us to do but I think in theory it should still work okay to get that booster dose a little bit later," said Dr. Ramers.

Saturday was the start of the county's push to begin vaccinating about a half-million more San Diegans who qualify under Phase 1B of California's vaccine distribution plan. Educators, emergency service personnel, and food and agriculture workers now qualify. Residents 65 and older in that phase have already been eligible for vaccines.