ST. LUCIE COUNTY, Fla. — County leaders in St. Lucie County are hosting a town hall Thursday evening to help clear the air of myths surrounding the coronavirus vaccine.
The myth buster town hall will give residents the chance to ask a panel of medical experts questions about the virus and the vaccine.
“There are concerns, you know, people feel like this vaccine was rushed so maybe short cuts were taken and we’ve got medical experts here as well as the director of our health department to dispel a lot of those myths,” said Erick Gill, Communications Director for St. Lucie County. Gill will serve as moderator for the town hall.
Residents with questions about COVID-19 or the vaccine are welcome to attend the town hall in person or virtually. County officials say attendance inside the county commission chambers will be limited to less than 50 people to allow for social distancing. For those watching on Facebook Live, staff will be fielding questions posted in the comment section to the panel.
“There will be a live audience. People can also comment on Facebook. We will have staff monitoring those questions and they can feed them to me to ask the experts. Everything from, ‘If I’m pregnant should I get vaccinated or if I’ve already had Covid, should I get the vaccine? ‘I had the flu shot last week. How long do I have to wait before I get the Covid vaccine?’ Those types of questions,” said Gill.
Gill says video of the entire town hall will be posted to the county’s website for people to view over the next few weeks. He says county leaders plan to hold another one as more vaccines become available.
The panel for the town hall will include:
- Florida Department of Health in St. Lucie Administrator Clint Sperber
- Dr. Wilhelmina N. Lewis with Florida Community Health Florida Community Health Centers
- Dr. Moti Ramgopal with Midway Specialty Care Center
- Dr. Fernando Petry, chief medical officer with Cleveland Clinic Martin Health