‘Come with me if you want to live’: Schwarzenegger gets vaccinated

Actor and former California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger received his first dose of the coronavirus vaccine at Dodger Stadium on Wednesday, making him one of the first residents 65 and over to be vaccinated in Los Angeles County.

What happened: Schwarzenegger, 73, made an appointment himself at one of the city’s large-scale vaccination sites on Tuesday after county health officials announced people 65 and older may start to receive vaccines Thursday, according to spokesperson Daniel Ketchell.

Ketchell said they were surprised that a number of dates were actually available for Wednesday, and Schwarzenegger signed up for a time slot at 8:50 a.m. He was greeted at the stadium by Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti, who personally controlled the arrival of the cars. for dates and had no prior knowledge of Schwarzenegger’s arrival, according to Ketchell.

“Alright, I just got my shot, and I would recommend it to anyone,” Schwarzenegger said in a Twitter video shot from the passenger seat of an SUV.

“Come with me if you want to live,” he added, using a famous slogan from his films “Terminator”.

Key context: Vaccination sites run by the County and City of Los Angeles began making appointments for elderly residents on Tuesday after an executive order from Hilda Solis, chair of the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors, ordered the Health officials to start prioritizing the age group that made up a large majority of Covid-related hospitalizations and deaths.

Los Angeles County Director of Public Health Barbara Ferrer said last week she did not expect to be able to offer vaccines to people 65 and older until next month because thousands of Priority health workers still had to be vaccinated.

Ferrer said on Tuesday that she did not feel rejected by the decree and that she agreed with the approach of simultaneously vaccinating health workers and elderly residents, despite the lack of doses to complete one either of the groups.

As of Wednesday afternoon, appointment slots for residents 65 and older remained open at three of the drive-in and mass vaccination sites and at a handful of sites and walk-in clinics in the county.

Carla Marinucci contributed to this report.