Starting this week, Shelby County will receive 11,000 to 12,000 doses of vaccine per week from the state, approaching its goal of inoculating 3,500 to 5,000 people a day.
The Department of Health is doing a fraction of that now. On a good day, like Saturday, January 23, it reached nearly 1,200 in the Pipkin Building, increasing the staff.
“People just need to wait to be inside or to know someone who will contact them and inform them when additional vaccines are available,” said Inez. “We are trying to make this process more fair, so that anyone who wants to be on the inside can sign up to receive this information.”
For now, the program allows people to go back to the end of the line and wait for their turn. Future Vax Queue iterations will allow them to make appointments, including second appointments the moment they make their first attempt.
On Monday, this would have alleviated the anxiety of people aged 75 and over and hundreds of sandwich-generation children caring for elderly parents.
At the beginning of the day, a certain despair reigned when hundreds of elderly people who received their first doses between December 28 and January 3 had their first meeting with SignUpGenius, a registration portal created more than 10 years ago to help churches and other groups to organize potlucks and volunteers.
It is now the vehicle to schedule COVID consultations online. When the Department of Health released the links at 8 am on Monday, thousands of people were at home, hovering over their keyboards.
Other legions were waiting for the Department of Health to send a text message with the link. When the messages didn’t arrive, it triggered another round of anxiety. Hundreds of other people rushed to get help via the hotline – (901) 222-SHOT (7468) – where callers alternately were unable to communicate or received busy signals for hours.
“It was crazy,” said Marilyn Hergenrader. “I’m in a Facebook group with all kinds of people my age who have parents aged 75 and over. None of our parents are technologically savvy; some do not have internet. We are announcing this to them, concerned that it will be first come, first served or difficult.
“Look, it was difficult,” she said shortly after 1 pm, when her mother was finally registered.
After several attempts to use what she said were non-functional links on the Department of Health website, Hergenrader typed the address into her browser and managed to sign up for Germantown Baptist, the most convenient place for her mother, only to realize she needed to support filmed before February 2, when it will open.
“It is very frustrating. I received a lot of calls this morning from other people like me who need to help their parents. You worry: there won’t be enough? Will they fill up fast and will you miss your mom’s chance to catch you?
“The more they provide partial and incomplete information, the more they lack confidence that you will get a place,” she said.
For her, it was a significant mistake to say that the times and places for the second doses would be released on Thursday, January 21, and not produce them.
Jim Dixon signed up to receive a text message from the Department of Health stating how to apply for the second dose.
When it didn’t arrive when the links went public on Monday, he wondered what else wasn’t working.
“I ended up getting a message, that was good,” he said. “But I expected them to burn them all at 8 am so people wouldn’t be apprehensive.”
He was able to make an appointment at SignUpGenius after a few attempts and is now comfortable with what is to come.
“I know this is the first time for the Department of Health and the first time for everyone,” said Dixon. “It seems that there was a lot of uncertainty on the part of the Ministry of Health. When we asked a doctor there if we would have our second injection, it was definitive. ‘You will have a second chance, but we don’t know when because we don’t know about availability or stock.’ “
The state is now negotiating with major retailers, including Kroger, Walgreens and CVS to expand the distribution of vaccines.
“I would say that it is not far in the future,” said Haushalter. “The state is really depending on the increase in supply at the federal level, which would allow some of the plans to be expanded across the state.”
Next week, the Department of Health hopes to announce a vaccination post in Whitehaven. It is also exploring locations outside Sam Cooper Boulevard and Frayser.
As of this week, it will offer vaccines to the elderly, from the age of 60, who are already clients receiving other services in the offices of the Health Department at number 1020 S. Bellevue. Other people in their 60s are not yet being vaccinated.