Enrollment in new Philly COVID vaccine is confusing



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Philadelphia is rolling out its own registration site for the COVID-19 vaccine, health officials said Tuesday, adding to a growing chorus of confusion over a city partner’s vaccine registry that already exists.

In early January, start-up Philly Fighting COVID launched a registration site ahead of its mass vaccination clinic at the Pennsylvania Convention Center. The organization’s announcement claimed that all vaccine preparation was “in close collaboration with the Philadelphia Department of Public Health.”

More than 60,000 people entered their information on the PFC site, according to the group, which said all registration data was shared with the city’s health department.

Health Commissioner Dr Thomas Farley has denied this is the case. The city has no control over the preliminary medical database provided by early PFC registrants, Farley said Tuesday.

“This is not our pre-registration effort, and it is not an official city registry,” Department of Health spokesman James Garrow told WHYY News last week. “We don’t use it, don’t review it, don’t check it.”

The city has a relationship with Philly Fighting COVID, Farley said: It provides the group with thousands of immunization doses to distribute each week. But the only data shared with the city, he said, is information about who has been vaccinated – not who has signed up.

PFC’s registration page, which uses the COVIDReadi portal, makes it clear that this is not an appointment registration and is not reserving space online. The promise is that those who enter information about their profession, age, and other relevant criteria will be notified once their group is eligible.

“Because we are working closely with the Ministry of Health, we will have this information before any other agency,” said Karol Osipowicz, professor at Drexel who is the group’s scientific director, during a visit to the clinic. opened for the first time January 8 at the Convention Center.

However, information on eligibility did not always match the city’s priority schedule, according to users who spoke to WHY. Some residents feared the effort was a phishing scam because they had never heard of the group, a nine-month-old start-up.

The landing page for PFC registration bears an official city seal, providing a sense of legitimacy for an otherwise unknown organization. But that seal is actually the official badge of City Council – which has denied giving any approval to Philly Fighting COVID to use its mark.

“The Board has not approved the use of its seal on this website,” said Joe Grace, Director of Communications for Board Chairman Darrell Clarke. “We contacted representatives of the organization to ask them to remove the seal of the Council. The Council has no role in this organization. “

The city’s proposed new pre-registration system, which is expected to go live by the end of the week, would not interface with PFCs at all, Farley said Tuesday.

It is still unclear what will happen to the tens of thousands of people who have registered with the PFC system and whether they should re-register with the city registry.

Vaccinate people before they are officially eligible

Philadelphia officially opened vaccine eligibility for the highest-risk categories in Phase 1B on Tuesday, including those over 75 and those with certain chronic conditions.

However, when Philly Fighting COVID opened its pop-up vaccination clinic at the Convention Center, only health workers in Phase 1A were eligible. However, the link to register for appointments was accessible to anyone who had obtained it.

Aimee Knaus, case manager for a refugee resettlement organization, said WHY a friend sent her the PFC link. Thinking that meant she could be vaccinated, she signed up immediately.

“It really seemed like, if you were a person who kind of… had that connection, you were the one who was going to get the shot,” she said.

Shortly afterwards, the same friend told him that the link wasn’t actually for the general public, so Knaus decided to cancel his date. She thought of her clients – 25 families, most of whom work on the front line and do not speak English, who would never have access to this type of early registration.

The experience made her lose confidence in the vaccine delivery process, Knaus said.

As rumors circulated, others who got their hands on the link did not cancel their dates, even though they knew they were not yet eligible.

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