Vaccine rollout in my county has been… troubled.
The hospitals did an outstanding job vaccinating their physicians and patient-facing staff during round one. Then the governor decided to ignore CDC advice and put the elderly (and health workers) in front of essential workers for round two. A call center was established to schedule appointments, and two drive-through sites were designated for actual distribution.
Many things were botched.
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There are way more elderly than there are ltc facility residents/staff and health care workers with direct patient contact. If you are a nonphysician healthcare worker who works with patients outside of a hospital, this is your first chance to get the vaccine. But it’s also the first chance for every person age 65 and older. I checked the Census Bureau which says there are 98,904 people age 65 or older in my county.
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My county and/or governor decided that we should offer vaccinations for nonresidents at this stage. That means people from out of state or from another county are eligible for vaccination here. Side note: I live next to the largest retirement community in the world, estimated population 140,000 age 55+.
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We only received approximately 3,000 doses.
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The county DoH announced the above plan on the morning of the 29th, around 10am I think, with testing to begin by registration only at 9:00am the next morning. The phone number for registration only takes calls between 9am and 4pm Monday through Friday. The URL for the announcmeent page is also rediculously, unprofessionally long.
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Every page on the county DoH website says the offices will be closed on New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day, but they do not say whether they will still take calls to register for vaccination.
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The phones are immediately overwhelmed. Later that day a Tweet goes out which apologizes for the high call volume and instructs people to continue trying to call the same number between 9am and 4pm. The Tweet is posted at 5:26pm on the 29th. It also says there is limited capacity for walk-ins.
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On the morning of the 30th the call system is still overwhelmed. It doesn’t put you on hold or play a prerecorded message, only a busy signal or even “the number you dialed is not in service”. The DoH sends a Tweet at 8:30am saying “there is currently no walk-in availability” at one site. Shortly after 10:00am another Tweet goes out saying first-come first-serve for walk-ins starts 9am New Year’s Day, and that already scheduled appointments will still be honored.
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Until about midday on the 30th, telephone operators for vaccine registration were under the false impression that health workers with direct patient contact but without a medical license or hospital ID were ineligible for this round. After establishing that health workers with direct patient contact and a current paystub were eligible per the governor’s announcement and the county DoH website, I was told to contact the hospital and see if my staff could be vaccinated there, then call back. The hospitals said they can only vaccinate hospital employees and licensed physicians.
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Also by midday on the 30th all of the appointment slots were scheduled. People answering the phones were instructing callers that there is limited walk-in availability, possibly that very day. Workers on the ground at distribution sites are turning away walk-ins until the 1st.
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By 1 or 2pm, the county updates their website to say that only appointments will be honored on the 31st and the 1st. A Tweet will go out with the same message at 8am the 31st.
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Early the morning of the 31st, county workers arrive at the other site to meet parking lots and side streets full of people who don’t have appointments. Some had been waiting all night. All such people are turned away. Walk-ins that day are advised to come back early morning for first-come first-serve on the 2nd.
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Around 6:30pm the 31st the county updates their website with a statement from the administrator. He writes that the goal of the first-come first-serve distribution scheme is to distribute all of the vaccines allocated to our county as rapidly as possible. He pats himself on the back for being allocated another shipment next week due to high demand, and concludes by saying it will be first-come first-serve when the new vaccines come in. The press release does not include site addresses or eligibility information.
~Max