Disneyland is going to be a COVID-19 vaccine super site. Could Disney World be next?

[Disney4me]

The public can’t ride any attractions at Disneyland, which has stood closed for nearly a year. But starting this week, the California theme park will open up as a super COVID-19 distribution site where thousands of people will get the vaccine daily.

Could Disney World be named a giant vaccine site, too?

Like hospitals across the state, Disney World has the capacity to store the vaccine with an ultra-cold freezer, said state emergency director Jared Moskowitz during a virtual town hall with state Rep Anna Eskamani, D-Orlando, last week.

“We have no ultra-cold freezer storage problems here in the state. There are plenty of hospitals with them. County health departments have them. Some universities have them. Disney World has one,” Moskowitz said, adding his department bought some, too.

Disney World and Moskowitz’s office have not responded to questions from the Orlando Sentinel to provide further details or to say if there are plans to make the theme park resort a vaccination site for the general public or its workforce.

Gov. Ron DeSantis alluded to the possibility of Disney World becoming a distribution site as the workforce becomes the next target to vaccinate after senior citizens.

“You literally could drop a bunch of vaccines at Disney, Orange County Schools, wherever,” DeSantis said last week during a news conference in Longwood. “And they can knock that out pretty quickly. And it’s one dose and done. So I think that makes more sense with essential workers.”

Before the pandemic, Walt Disney World Resort was the largest single-site employer in the country with a workforce of more than 75,000 although it has been hit with massive layoffs last year after the theme parks shut down in March and then reopened in July.

Disney World also has a long history of managing crowds.

In 2019, the Magic Kingdom alone had an estimated 21 million visits. Disney’s real-estate footprint also is expansive, operating hotels, theme parks and other buildings on 40 square miles, roughly the size of San Francisco.

Already, Disney World has played a part during the pandemic.

The Florida Division of Emergency Management opened a walk-up testing facility at Disney World’s Maingate Complex last year. Testing is free and available for all residents ages 2 and up, according to Osceola County.

California leaders praised the Walt Disney Co. for its decision to allow Disneyland to become a distribution site, saying they needed large-scale space for the region’s first super site.

“The Disneyland Resort, the largest employer in the heart of Orange County, has stepped up to host the county’s first Super (Point-of-Dispensing) site – undertaking a monumental task in our vaccination distribution process,” said California’s Orange County Supervisor Andrew Do in a press release.

In California, among the first allowed to get vaccinated are law enforcement, first responders in high-risk communities and seniors age 75 and older.

In Florida, the state’s priority is for people over 65 to get tested, although news media reports have revealed instances of wealthy people living out-of-state or internationally coming in to get vaccinated, drawing criticism from Floridians unable to find open reservations.

In the town hall, Moskowitz spoke about the frustration of the state not getting enough vaccine doses and the logistical challenges of planning as the emergency officials want to end the coronavirus “nightmare.”

“Now I’m building infrastructure and now we’re not going to be able to feed the infrastructure because we’re not getting enough vaccine,” he said.

grusson@orlandosentinel.com