Says one: ‘It’s a zoo’
Readers hit boiling point over website
Error messages and wait times that soared into the thousands of minutes had Herald readers demanding answers from the jammed vaccine appointment website.
“It’s a zoo,” said Stew Sterling of Brockton, who at 73 years old is still without an appointment.
“We are extremely disappointed that nothing has changed in a week and a half. Surely they can do better than this?” he added in an email to newstips@bostonherald.com. He said his wife was working the phones to help him land a coveted spot. She, thankfully, scored a shot a few days ago.
It’s clear Massachusetts residents have hit a boiling point with the vaxfinder.ma.gov site.
“This is what it looked like at 7:47 a.m.,” said another reader who was told he had to wait 2,272 minutes until it was his turn to book a slot.
All the appointments were gone well before that epic wait. Others reported wait times of 8,000 to 50,000 minutes.
“I’M 60,000TH IN LINE AT THE CURATIVE SITE FOR SPRINGFIELD. REAL SHOT AT GETTING THIS. WHAT TIME DID IT OPEN THE LINE?” another reader wrote to the Herald tip line. (His anger was shown in all caps.)
He had a point. A lot of people did wake up early to win early spots in the waiting line, it appeared.
“Well, I guess we should have all expected this!” another said. “Did the governor expect everyone to sit around all day waiting in line?” the reader asked. “I live in Sunderland, in Western Massachusetts, and I am so frustrated with the obvious disregard that the governor has for this part of the state but am especially frustrated for all of us regarding the abject failure of this vaccination program!!!”
Exclamation points were a common theme all day. Others added they understand supply is the problem, but the state’s website did not seem to improve week-over-week.
“I have refreshed about 100 times, only to occasionally see one appointment, go through all the questions and be told that the slot isn’t available,” said a woman helping an elderly neighbor in the city. “This is much worse than last week. The only difference between this week and last is that now you have to wait longer to begin booking an appointment that’s not even available.”