Thousands of Michiganders managed to get in line for Covid’s vaccine after a breach in the programming system was discovered. More than 2,700 people were able to make appointments ahead of schedule, after a user was able to find a way to beat the vaccine priority group criteria, said Michigan’s largest health care system, Beaumont Health.
“Beaumont’s team determined that a user took advantage of a vulnerability in the Epic scheduling tool and shared a publicly unauthorized scheduling path. This allowed 2,700 people to ‘cut the queue’ and register for an unauthorized vaccine appointment. Beaumont is canceling all consultations that used the unauthorized route, “the organization said in a statement on Monday.
According to state guidance on vaccination at Covid, the goal is to inoculate 70 percent of people over 16 before the end of this year, a total of about 5.6 million people.
IT company Epic said in a statement that “it will not interfere with those who are currently qualified to schedule an appointment and receive a vaccine”.
“We are sorry that 2,700 people in our community were victims of this unfortunate incident,” said Hans Keil, chief information officer at Beaumont Health.
Beaumont said that “the incident did not compromise anyone’s personal medical record, nor did it allow outsiders to access hospital records. The path simply allowed users to schedule an unauthorized appointment that bypassed Michigan’s current ordinances.”
Michigan is not the only state where people have tried to skip Covid’s vaccine lines. The Boston Globe reported in early January that line skippers were caught red-handed after a link provided to employers to get their workers vaccinated was shared more widely than intended. Health officials canceled hundreds of consultations and removed links to registration forms after it was revealed that ineligible people at this stage of vaccination had signed up for consultations.
On Friday, young people and healthy individuals received invitations to a mass vaccination event in St. Louis, according to The St Louis Dispatch.
“I was surprised by this, but I filled out the form and got vaccinated because we were told that when you get the chance to get vaccinated, you should. I didn’t know if I declined this opportunity if I would be expelled from the city’s vaccination list, “Jessi Kniffen, 39, told the newspaper after being invited to be vaccinated by the St. Louis City Department of Health. Elderly Missourians and some with problems doctors who allegedly put them on the front line said they had not received similar invitations.
According to the latest data from the Centers for Disease Control, just under 50 million doses have been distributed and more than 31 million doses have been administered. More than 5.5 million people received two doses.