Construction complete on King of Prussia COVID vaccine facility

Source, The Times Herald, Gary Puleo

The site of a once popular King of Prussia shopping destination at 250 Mall Boulevard is suddenly back in the spotlight.

At the former home of Toys R Us and Babies R Us workers for concert/festival construction contractor Mountain Productions have built a facility that was designed to serve as both a coronavirus testing and vaccine site.

“These were Mountain Productions employees who helped assemble equipment that’s normally used at concerts, live music festivals, large gatherings and they used those resources and equipment to create this structure to administer vaccines,” explained Mountain Productions spokesman Ike Richman, who said the company was hired by King of Prussia-based 15toKnow. “The work was finished on Monday.”

The 15toKnow company is described on its website, 15toknow.com as “a rapid testing company operating on-demand, drive-through, and mobile in-place and mobile setup respiratory pathogens testing labs. Consumers, businesses, and institutions can choose when, why, and where to get tested. Easy, quick and affordable access to accurate respiratory pathogen testing will give the peace of mind needed to return to normal life.”

“We’ve been an approved vaccine provider since Jan. 6. We’ve been administering vaccines since Jan. 8. We’ve actually been administering second dose vaccines today (at another location), but we’re not able to do it at this location yet,” Mike Dershowitz, CEO of 15toKnow, noted on Friday. “We’re here, ready, willing and able. We’re not a mass vaccination site yet. The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, which we’ve been working very closely with and certainly appreciate their support, hasn’t yet allocated vaccines for us.”

The Mall Boulevard site will demonstrate what’s possible in administering vaccines, he added.

“Should the site run at full capacity, it can handle 3,000 vaccinations a day,” Dershowitz said.

“This site is a testing site. We’ve always had a testing site in King of Prussia. We just moved from the old Ruth’s Chris Steak House to the old Toys R Us because we needed more space. And then when the state is ready to use us as a mass vaccination site, we’re here. We’ve been working with the township every day, and they’ve been doing a great job at getting questions answered so we can get this site opened for testing, because we’re still a testing company, but we’re also trying to help by administering vaccines. Our entire model is that people don’t actually get out of their cars. Because we know how to do medicine in people’s cars it makes sense to go from testing to vaccines and hopefully end the pandemic.”

Dershowitz noted that anyone who qualifies in group 1A, as determined by the Commonwealth, is eligible to register for a vaccine appointment on the website.

“CVS and Walgreens are the primary providers of vaccines outside of the county health department right now. As a private provider, we always expected to be used when needed after those other resources were used. Our site was really to show that we can get ready and be there if the Commonwealth decides to activate it.”

He added that no one should call customer service for a vaccine appointment but instead should fill out a waiting form on the site.

“If we have vaccines available and you’re on the list, it’s first in, first out,” Dershowitz said. “If we do start to get much more massive doses from the state, and we’re selected as a mass provider, because right now we’re just a private provider, then we’ll obviously send out an advisory.”