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Florida’s Vaccine Rollout Woes, Remembering The Holocaust, Why The Obsession With Orchids?

WLRN's Luis Hernandez and Holocaust survivor Anita Karl prepare to do Facebook Live interview in 2018.
Katie Lepri
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WLRN News
WLRN's Luis Hernandez and Holocaust survivor Anita Karl prepare to do Facebook Live interview in 2018.

Remembering survivors of the Holocaust. And a conversation with orchid collectors about this month’s book club title, 'The Orchid Thief.'

On this Wednesday, Jan. 27, episode of Sundial:

Florida’s Vaccine Rollout Woes

The COVID-19 vaccine rollout in Florida has been anything but smooth.

Those currently eligible for vaccines include healthcare workers, long-term care facility residents and staff, and people 65 and older.

But a new residency requirement has created obstacles for those who might need the vaccine the most.

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“Many people who are homeless, who don't carry papers around with them, or immigrants who don't have a Florida ID but are nonetheless residing permanently in Dade County, are going to be very badly affected by this," said JoNel Newman, a professor of clinical legal education at the University of Miami.

And Floridians who should be the first in line for a vaccine right now are struggling to schedule an appointment, while doses are running out. A new Facebook page created by a South Florida couple is helping those struggling to get an appointment. They include translators for Spanish, Creole and Portuguese.

Sundial spoke with WLRN health care reporter Veronica Zaragovia about these vaccine rollout issues. We also heard from Steve Ullmann, a professor and the director of the Center for Health Management and Policy at the University of Miami.

You can find more information on how to make a vaccine appointment here.

Florida’s Vaccine Rollout Woes
Antonio Castro receives the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine from Walgreens Pharmacy Intern Erika Blanco, 24, at The Palace Renaissance & Royale, an assisted living facility in Kendall, on Wednesday, January 13, 2021.

Remembering The Holocaust

Anita Karl's mother made a decision that would save her life and the lives of her three daughters. They escaped from a ghetto in Nazi-occupied Poland and lived as Catholics for the remainder of the war.

"We admired [my mother] and we cherished her. We knew she gave us life twice," Karl said. "She is a heroine of our people. Maybe a silent heroine, but yet she is the heroine of our people. She saved three lives from the Holocaust."

Karl is one of the youngest survivors of the Holocaust living in Miami. She shares her story whenever she can, as she believes it is important for younger generations to be aware of the atrocities that occurred during World War II.

She shared her story with us in the WLRN studio back in 2018 and stayed afterward for an extended conversation on Facebook Live.

We revisit that conversation on Holocaust Remembrance Day.

Remembering The Holocaust
Holocaust survivors visited the former Auschwitz concentration camp on International Holocaust Remembrance Day.

Why The Obsession With Orchids?

Sundial is reading “The Orchid Thief” by Susan Orlean as January's Sundial Book Club title.

The book follows John Laroche, an eccentric plant collector who travels around the Everglades seeking the rarest forms of orchids on the planet. His obsession leads him to be consistently at odds with law enforcement and the judicial system, as some rare orchids are federally protected.

That never seemed to stop him, even after he was arrested.

“Oh my gosh, he was so intelligent,” said Susan Edgar Lee, a retired science teacher and Sundial Book Club member. She added how Laroche’s idea to go around the law and clone an orchid, which led to what are now known as “grocery-store orchids.”

“If we’re talking about Florida men ... I think that he would be kind of hard to date,” said Pilar Uribe, a former WLRN host and book club member. “He would be a great dinner party guest. I don’t know what he would be like to live with though.”

Sundial also heard from orchid experts about the lengths that people will go to satisfy their obsession with the beautiful flowers.

“I had an orchid stolen this past January right from in front of my house it was on a hanging basket in the tree and it was 11:30 p.m.,” said Lucy Matos Lodato, who leads the Flamingo Gardens' Orchidteers volunteer group. “I saw this woman step onto my property and I thought she was just going to grab a flower and the next morning the orchid was gone. I was traumatized, I really was.”

Why The Obsession With Orchids?
University of Florida scientists are trying to boost the populations of the legendary ghost orchid.

Leslie Ovalle Atkinson is the former lead producer behind Sundial. As a multimedia producer, she also worked on visual and digital storytelling.