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A rush of thousands seeking their COVID-19 vaccines has flooded Sonoma County inoculation appointments set up this week to serve those aged 75 or older, but around 85% appointments were canceled on Friday after county staff realized those who signed up were also young, officials said.
The rush to ineligible registrations has prompted officials to delay a planned vaccination clinic for teachers, with another opportunity for farm workers and others slated for early February in full swing, as the county focuses on immunization for teachers. ‘about 37,000 people aged 75 or over – a group most vulnerable to the most severe consequences of the disease.
The county will then prioritize anyone 65 years of age or older, adding about 65,000 more people to the pool who are eligible for vaccination.
County vaccine chief Dr Urmila Shende said the county had acted quickly to identify the problem. She said she believed the county would be able to inoculate these age groups quickly, although she could not provide a specific timeline.
Sonoma County Supervisor Chairman Lynda Hopkins asked for the patience of the public at a press briefing on Friday, and she compared the pandemic to a mass event in which it is essential to serve the most vulnerable.
“People over the age of 75 in our community are the ones who die disproportionately, they are the most at risk of dying from COVID-19, it absolutely makes sense to prioritize them first for the vaccine, ”Hopkins said. “I know it’s frustrating.”
In January, county residents contracted COVID-19 in the highest numbers so far since the pandemic struck more than 10 months ago, a troubling truth that this week coincides with the reopening of businesses and the end of stay-at-home orders statewide in place since December.
With an average of 237 cases per day since January 1, the new year has continued a trend started in December when infections rose sharply, almost tripling from November.
The outbreak coincided with the start of the first vaccinations against the new coronavirus which has infected more than 3.2 million Californians and killed nearly 40,000.
Friday’s vaccine appointment scheduling is another example of the challenges facing vaccination efforts, one best beset by dose shortages and disorganization across the state.
The county intended the Rohnert Park clinic – one of four in a state pilot program – to vaccinate only people aged 75 and over who had disabilities, did not have access to the technology or were otherwise disadvantaged, Shende said. To meet its target demographic, the county reached out to “community-affiliated seniors’ organizations” for seniors to register, especially those who may have been unable to register, she said.
The process started off fairly well on Sunday, with the county filling the invitation-only date slots.
But after the county distributed a link to schedule a vaccination appointment – publicly available but unannounced – one or more people passed the link on to someone else, and on Wednesday night the link to the page registration ended up on social media, county spokesman Paul Gullixson said. He noted that the registration site’s default setting corresponded to state rules, which set the age limit at 65, and that Sonoma County’s preference was not immediately reflected.
“We had given these invitations with very strict instructions not to forward,” Shende said. “And someone – it happens – but somebody ended up passing it on to a friend, and so on, and we know how it goes.”
This led to a deluge of registrations, with 7,000 to 8,000 people registering for most of February – but 85% were people under age 75, Shende said. Signing up for an appointment for a vaccine requires a date of birth, so it was easy to quickly identify who is eligible and who is not, she said.
Whether it’s trying to jump the line or being genuinely confused about eligibility, these people don’t need to show up on time. Their appointments were canceled and Shende did not expect any difficulty in finding people to take their place.
“It won’t be a problem,” she said. “Because we have 36,000 people who need appointments. … It will fill up.
OptumServe will notify each person of cancellations. But they have a hard time getting the notifications out. They will probably come out over the weekend.
The same issue affected registrations for vaccinations at the Oakmont Safeway Clinic, Shende said. Meetings started at 10:30 a.m. on Friday, but most of the original bookings were made by people under the age of 75, she said.
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