TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (WTXL) — In the push to get more people vaccinated to keep those cases down, Florida A&M University is opening its doors with a new vaccine site at the Al Lawson Center.
While 200 people have a chance of being vaccinated per day, only 65 showed up Thursday.
Dozens of people stood in line about an hour before the Al Lawson Center opened Thursday morning. The idea of the clinic is to serve seniors and people of color who would not otherwise have easy access to a vaccination site.
People get in line, scan a QR code with their phones or get help from an attendant to sign up. The walk-up format makes it easy for people like Junius Gladley to get his shot.
"After I found out they were having the vaccines available here and they had a limited dose," said Junius Gladley. "If I was going to come, I wanted to make sure it was early because I had no idea how many people will show up."
Gladley said he knows the protection he's gaining outweighs the doubts others have about the vaccine.
"The pandemic is the pandemic. Everyone has to make that decision of when it's right to do it," said Gladley. "Everybody's going to have apprehensions which is natural but at some point in time you just have to make the decision."
Some of the doses today were also given out to Florida A&M students and employees like Cecil Washington.
"They allow some students from student health services to get the shot as well so I really just wanted to get vaccinated," said Washington.
Washington said he couldn't think of a better way to keep the community's minority population safer from the deadly virus.
"I just think it makes things a lot simpler for a lot of people. Just knowing that if you want to get the vaccine, it's readily available," said Washington. "You have a lot of people here that can just help you."
The site is open Monday through Sunday from 9 a.m. to 12 p.m.
If transportation is an issue to any vaccine site in town, you can either take a StarMetro bus for free or get a ride from someone through Volunteer Leon.
For more information, call (850) 606-1970.
