Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
State systems jammed in rush to get vaccines
Seniors flood phone lines, website crashes
Frustrated South Florida seniors jammed phone lines and crashed a state health department website on Wednesday as they tried to make appointments to get a COVID vaccine.
Broward Health, which operates hospitals in Broward County, stopped taking vaccination appointments by noon, saying they were booked through February. The website of the state health department’s Broward office, which crashed earlier in the day, was back online by mid-afternoon for South Florida seniors to schedule vaccine appointments at browardcovidvaccine.com.
At a news conference Wednesday at King’s Point, a sprawling 55-and-older community in West Delray, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis told seniors that he’s aware of the strong demand for the vaccines and the issues that has created for people trying to get appointments.
“There’s obviously a crush of people that are interested,” DeSantis said. “Demand exceeds supply. On the one hand, that’s a good thing because this was something we wanted people to have confidence in.”
“If you are someone 65 or older, you are going to get access to this. It might not be today for everyone, may not be next week, but over the next many weeks, as long as we keep getting the supply, you’re
going to have the opportunity to get this,” he said.
Barbara Shlevin, a 71-year-old retired librarian, is trying to be patient but she wants the vaccine. She called Broward Health’s vaccine appointment line 183 times in the last 24 hours.
“When you do get through, it disconnects you,” she said.
Jared Moskowitz, director of Florida’s Division of Emergency Management, said there were phone and computer outages at state health department offices, which he called “growing pains” from the crush of inquiries about a limited supply of vaccines.
“It’s not that the local health departments don’t have plans,” he said. “They are executing on their plans, but they have a limited supply of vaccine. At the end of the day, they can only do so many shots based on their available nurses and available vaccine. We are going to give them additional nurses, paramedics and resources to help the vaccinators puts shots in arms.”
Another vaccination site will open next week at Century Village in Boca Raton and three more at sites in Broward County, Moskowitz said.
“We are going to where the senior population is,” he said. “We are being extremely aggressive. This is not going to happen in a week. This is not going to happen overnightm and that’s because there is a limited amount of vaccine.”
A total of 175,465 people in Florida have received the first dose of the vaccines, which require a second dose, according to the Wednesday vaccination report from the state health department. That represents 0.8% of the state’s population.
Florida Agriculture Commissioner Nikki Fried, the state’s highest-ranking Democrat, called on DeSantis to activate the National Guard to help administer the vaccines.
“The lack of preparation and progress on administering these critical, life-saving vaccines is inexcusable,” she wrote in a letter to the governor. “I strongly encourage you to mobilize Florida National Guard resources to oversee a timely, orderly, centralized process for distributing COVID-19 vaccines to Floridians, including a benchmark of administering 100 percent of available vaccines within ten days of those vaccines’ arrival in Florida.”
The vaccines are being administered by the state health department’s county offices and by hospitals.
In distributing vaccines, the governor has given priority to residents of nursing homes, healthcare workers and people 65 and older. The state asked hospitals to offer shots to seniors as soon as they vaccinate doctors, nurses and other healthcare workers.
“We don’t have enough vaccine on hand for all of the 4 million-plus seniors in Florida,” DeSantis said. “We will get there, but it’s not going to happen overnight, so please be patient.”
Five hospitals in Florida received the initial shipment of 20,000 doses in early December including Jackson Memorial Hospital and Memorial Healthcare System in South Florida. The state plan has been to vaccinate healthcare workers and long-term-care residents first. DeSantis expanded that last week to include Floridians 65 and older.
DeSantis said Wednesday that COVID vaccine demand is higher than testing demand. Acknowledging that hospitals are swamped by seniors who want vaccines, DeSantis said, “If hospitals need support we are willing to provide that.” He said he personally will not get the vaccine until Florida seniors are inoculated.
“We don’t have enough vaccine on hand for all of the 4 million-plus seniors in Florida. Now, we will get there, but it’s not going to happen overnight, so please be patient. ”Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis
At King’s Point Wednesday morning, DeSantis spoke at the beginning of an event at which about 300 people would be vaccinated by staff from the state health department’s Palm Beach County office.
“I’ve got a lot of medical issues, and I just wanted to get it done,” said Frank Iovini, 78, originally from Connecticut, as he sat at a table in the clubhouse waiting his turn.
Dr. Alina Alonso, the health department’s Palm Beach County director, said her office’s phone system was overwhelmed.
“We had no idea we would get so many calls,” she said.
The department is planning various ways to speed the delivery of vaccines, she said, using methods similar to those used to offer testing.
These will include events similar to the one at King’s Point, with the department arriving at a large residential complex and vaccinating hundreds of people in a few hours. There will also be free-standing operations where people can drive up, get out of their cars, get vaccinated and drive off.
But she said this will be a lengthy operation, given the schedule and the availability of vaccines.
“It will take at least a year,” she said.
Shlevin and her husband Harold, a retired pharmaceutical executive, hoped the state’s vaccine rollout would have been smoother. “How many months have they known a vaccine was coming? They haven’t done anything of any substance. This is a pathetic situation,” said Harold Shlevin, 71. “I’m afraid it’s only going to get worse.”