2 cast members of ‘Chicago Fire’ received COVID vaccines at Joliet West

“Chicago Fire” stars Jessie Spencer and Taylor Kinney came out to the vaccination site at Joliet West High School on Friday for their first dose of the Pfizer vaccines.

Spencer plays Matthew Casey and Kinney plays Kelly Severide on the NBC TV series.

Their appearance was a surprise to most of the people at the site, except for Joliet Fire Department Deputy Chief Jeff Carey, who said he arranged the visit as a treat for the hard-working volunteers.

However, Carey is also hoping the news of Spencer and Kinney receiving their COVID vaccines will encourage other people to come out and get vaccinated, too.

“We’re trying to get it announced as much as possibly locally,” Carey said.

Carey said that, for some unknown reason, appointments have slowed down. As of Tuesday, only 100 people had signed up for Wednesday. So he and the 40 volunteers working at the site were planning to take the rest of the week off, he said.

“We can’t fill our appointments anymore,” Carey said. “A month ago, you couldn’t get one. But now we’re struggling to get people to come in … it’s crazy how we couldn’t keep up before and now we can’t give them away.”

Last weekend, Carey had 1,600 hundred doses to distribute. But only 900 people came out, he said.

“We started Feb. 1 and we’ve given 40,000 vaccines. And we’re hoping to keep giving them,” Carey said. “But it’s kind of been fading away.”

AMITA Health and the Joliet Fire Department originally opened the site to vaccinate teachers in Joliet Township High School District 204 and other nearby schools.

After more than 4,000 teachers and staff were vaccinated at the site, appointments opened up for older residents who were eligible for vaccines under Phase 1B of the state’s distribution plan and now for people age 16 and up according to Phase 2.

Carey isn’t certain if people aren’t signing up because they think all the slots are full or if they’re hesitant because of the pause of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine.

But nearly all of the shots administered in Will County, about 99.5% out of over 350,000, have been either from Pfizer or Moderna, according to a news release from the Will County Health Department.

The Illinois Department of Public Health had announced its pause in its use of the Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine, which is in accordance with guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, Shaw Media recently reported.

But Carey wants people to know that appointments for the COVID-19 vaccine are readily available and that the Joliet West site has only used the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines.

“And we haven’t had any issues with Pfizer or Moderna,” Carey said.

The Will County Health Department is scheduling COVID-19 vaccines at willcountyhealth.org/vaccine-locations.