Frustrated by attempts to get vaccine appointment

I have no doubt that the Marin Health and Human Services Department is faced with multiple difficult challenges as it implements the county’s vaccination program, but there are some frustrating deficiencies that can and should be corrected despite the inconsistent and inadequate vaccine supply.

It is understandable that appointments should be made online. However, getting to the place on the website pertaining to appointments requires navigating through a blizzard of data that likely is not of great interest to those seeking vaccination. Every time I click on the button for appointments for people over 75 and scroll down through more verbiage, I find all appointments for the week full.

Nowhere on the website is there any information about when the site will open for new appointments or, other than age, how appointments are apportioned among eligible residents. This is incredibly frustrating and can only breed resentment against those who apparently have the connections needed to get vaccinated.

The website claims that additional information about vaccination appointments can be obtained from staff at a prescribed phone number, which supposedly is answered during specified hours. That number goes to a recording of someone speaking so slowly that it feels like someone trying to give complex instructions to a young child. Instead of information about vaccinations, the recording goes on and on about testing sites. I confess that I haven’t had the patience to keep listening all the way to the end of the recording.

As someone in his mid-70s, and whose spouse is almost 82, I hope that these deficiencies can be corrected before we and others like us become infected.

— George Forman, Nicasio