A COVID-19 vaccine clinic in Pasadena, California, scheduled to take place on Thursday, was canceled on Tuesday after most of its schedules were filled with those working in Hollywood and the media.
As reported by the Los Angeles Times for the first time, 900 of the clinic’s 1,500 vaccination slots were claimed by people ineligible for the COVID-19 vaccine in the state of California. The clinic was designed to vaccinate people aged 65 and over and essential workers, such as grocery workers, who live or work in Pasadena, and an email with an enrollment link was sent to those who qualified last week. Instead, city spokeswoman Lisa Derderian said Variety that many of those enrolled in the clinic have worked in production companies, news agencies, streaming platforms and cinema or television sets.
“They were not at the current level. Many of them worked for streaming, video and production companies or news, and did not live or work in Pasadena, ”says Derderian.
Derderian says he was first alerted to the problem when an LA Times reporter called his office on Monday, saying he had received a link to register with the vaccine clinic and asked if it was legitimate. Derderian then called the Pasadena Department of Public Health, who took a look at the back end of the CalVax registration system, where the addresses and employers of those who registered can be accessed.
“An hour after the site was online, we had several hundred subscribers who did not meet eligibility,” says Derderian.
That number skyrocketed to 900 by the end of Monday, leading to the city’s decision to cancel Thursday’s clinic. Derderian says similar situations have happened before with ineligible people who registered to be vaccinated, but never in such high numbers.
Typically, Derderian says the city audits the names and addresses of each person who registers and makes personal calls to check the eligibility of those who do not fit the current level. But 900 calls were too much for the team to answer, and so they canceled the clinic instead of risking those who weren’t eligible to show up.
“900 was not a viable amount to make these calls, so we determined that we needed to cancel and call the others that were legitimate,” says Derderian. “Unfortunately, many are the elderly people with whom we have worked hard to get in touch.”
The city is trying to reschedule the clinic early next week, if not sooner, and is considering changing its registration system to MyTurn, another statewide system that could offer an easier verification process.
Although the original email sent to those eligible for the clinic contained a text making it clear who was eligible for the vaccine, Derderian believes it was spread by someone who obtained the link, and then forwarded it to others without the context.
In the end, Derderian encourages all California residents to wait for the appropriate time to be vaccinated.
“I mean, most people know what levels they fall into, it’s in the news every day,” says Derderian. “If in doubt, they should have called. So I’m sure that part of it was not intentional, but a lot of it was trying to manipulate the system. “