MIAMI (CBSMiami / AP) – To get a younger population vaccinated against COVID-19, LIV is offering free footage outside of South Beach nightclub, where high rollers can spend up to $ 20,000 on one table.
The bustling nightclub, where Super Bowl champions celebrate at parties so legendary that they inspired lyrics by Drake and Kanye West, launched a pop-up website for COVID vaccines over the weekend. So did the STORY nightclub, both of whom were hoping to get younger people to roll up their sleeves to get a recording. Unvaccinated young and middle-aged people are filling Florida hospitals quickly as the Delta variant is rapidly spreading across the state.
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The LIV and STORY clubs closed for about a year during the pandemic and reopened in April. Owner David Grutman, the king of South Beach nightlife who also owns a restaurant and hotel with Pharrell, said, “We’re excited, we want to stay open and we know that vaccines can only do this, so we want it Make it as accessible as possible. “
He has partnered with CDR Health, which has given over 2 million vaccines since the outbreak, to offer free vaccinations outside of clubs on weekends, with the option to extend them for additional weekends.
The vast majority of Florida hospitalized COVID-19 patients are unvaccinated. Of the more than 10.5 million fully vaccinated Floridians, about 0.019% are in a Florida hospital with COVID-19, according to the Florida Hospital Association.
Elizabeth Bahamonde, 25, remembers the last time she partied with friends on LIV. It was just a few months before the pandemic and they danced the night away, shoulder to shoulder, when Latin pop superstar Bad Bunny performed.
“The Miami club scene is a lifestyle. If you live here, you just know, ”said the Uber Eats driver.
Although it was tough, she stayed home most of the pandemic and didn’t go out again until late 2020 as she got tired of isolation. But as clubs and restaurants all over Florida became more crowded, and masks and other restrictions were lifted, she stopped doing clubs.
She had been on the fence about the vaccine and planned to have it, but got COVID two weeks ago and called it “the most terrible experience of my life”.
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“I wasn’t anti-Vax, but I was waiting for it,” said Bahamonde, who said half of her friends are vaccinated and the other are not. “As ignorant as it may seem, I had to go through it to want to do it.”
Bahamonde said she plans to get vaccinated now and thinks it’s cool that LIV is using its influence to promote the vaccine among young club-goers, saying her unvaccinated friends are “actually running out more”.
“LIV uses their image and platform to promote the appeal that, ‘Hey, it’s cool to party, but it’s also cool to be vaccinated.’ I think it puts people in a more comfortable position, ”she said.
Dr. Leonardo Alonso, an emergency doctor in Jacksonville, where the outbreak is particularly widespread, said he is seeing large numbers of healthy young and medium-sized patients with COVID pneumonia and alarmingly low oxygen levels.
“The variant is more virulent,” he said. “I didn’t see nearly as many young people last year who are so hypoxic and sick,” and notes that many need supplemental oxygen.
“And it’s partly because this group of people was disproportionately not voluntarily vaccinated,” he added.
Republican Governor Ron DeSantis has encouraged vaccinations but repeatedly stressed that he would not impose nationwide masking requirements or business bans, calling such restrictions harmful, destructive and ineffective.
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