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It’s no secret that the United States is struggling to distribute coronavirus vaccines; some states did not receive enough doses and finding a date on registration websites was a chaotic experience. A new report in MIT Technology Review looks at why, nearly a year after the start of the pandemic, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention seemed completely unprepared to get vaccinated in people’s arms.
According to Technology review, the agency knew it needed a strong one-stop-shop that could be used by patients, clinics, employers and government officials. But instead, the CDC spent $ 44 million on something called the Vaccine Administration Management System – VAMS – built by consulting firm Deloitte (via non-competitive contracts) that was so insufficient that it has prompted some states to try to set up their own vaccine distribution systems instead.
Workers at clinics in Connecticut, Virginia and other states say the system is known for randomly canceled appointments, unreliable registrations and issues that keep staff from dashing it is supposed to use to log records. The CDC recognizes that there are several flaws that it is working to correct, although it attributes some of the problems to user error.
And it’s not just a matter of older people who aren’t tech-savvy enough to navigate the site (although that’s a huge problem); many doctors’ offices that tried using VAMS have mostly given up. Courtney Rowe of Connecticut Children’s Medical Center told Technology Review that she has become de facto technical support for many patients trying to make appointments:
“It won’t work on Internet Explorer; it only works in Chrome. The “Next” button is at the very bottom and to the right, so if you’re on a cell phone, you literally can’t see it, ”Rowe says. “In the first round, people using VAMS mostly had graduate degrees. If you are 75 and someone asks you to log into VAMS, there is no way it will happen without help.
Take a deep breath before diving into this infuriating report on how broken government systems are contributing to the mess around vaccine delivery.
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