Seniors crush Publix vaccine sign-up, again

Attention Publix shoppers: Don’t give up. More openings are coming next week.

But for now, for the second time this week, hundreds of thousands of seniors swarmed the Publix website trying to get dibs on one of the few precious vials of the COVID-19 vaccine.

In less than 2 ½ hours Friday morning, Publix reserved more than 48,900 appointments.

But many more across Florida were bitterly disappointed: “At any given point in time this morning, we had more than 300,000 customers accessing the system and trying to reserve an appointment,” said Nicole Maristany Krauss, Publix spokeswoman.

“There is more demand than supply,” she said.

And that supply problem is being felt across the state; Two hospital districts in Miami-Dade - Baptist Health and Mount Sinai this week cut off pending first-dose appointments.

Mount Sinai Medical Center in Miami Beach stopped first-dose appointments that were scheduled for Saturday and beyond “due to the uncertainty of the supply of vaccines” and they will not be rescheduled, according to hospi

tal spokeswoman Jackie Kaplan.

And Baptist Health encouraged its patients “to make new appointments elsewhere.”

Hospital districts in Broward were also not making new appointments this past week, and although the state’s health department in Broward opened a new phone line for appointments Thursday for their drive-thru sites at county parks, they refused to say how many doses are immediately available and when people could ever expect a call back.

Publix will offer another round of appointments, opening up its website www. publix.com/covid-vaccine/florida at 6 a.m. next Wednesday.

This past Wednesday, their 24,402 appointment slots were also gone quickly, with 250,000 people flooding the website. Krauss, of Publix, said a successful registrant can book up to four people at once. Supply of the vaccines permitting, the website could open 6 a.m. each Wednesday and Friday.

At 5:30 a.m. Friday, Clarence Smith, 83, of Boca Raton, was ready to pounce for the second time. He wanted an appointment for him and his wife, age 81.

And for the second time, he left empty-handed at 7:15 a.m.

He said he’s frustrated that while in the Publix virtual waiting room, there’s “no indication that you are next, or so many ahead of you.”

“I’m scared to death I won’t get vaccinated and I’ll get Covid,” said his wife, Charlene Smith. “We’re scared, frustrated and angry. We’re trying every avenue we can think of.”

Elsewhere in Palm Beach County, Richard Wolff has been trying in vain to find a place for his mother, age 90, who lives in Boca Raton, almost daily throughout the month of January.

His efforts to get her a spot on Publix’s first day Wednesday that included Palm Beach County pharmacies failed.

So, he came back more prepared and determined for attempt #2. He recruited his wife, brother and son to also go online to try to get her a spot.

Wolff, his wife and brother, all trying from their homes in New York, were stuck in the Publix virtual waiting room and never got an appointment. But his son, living in Israel, snagged a coveted spot for his grandmother for this weekend in Palm Beach County.

“It takes a load off my shoulders, a real relief,” he said. “It was very stressful.”