Opening vaccinations on January 6 to all 65+ persons instead of 75+ was a very big mistake in many California counties
My Personal experience getting an appointment
I got my vaccine appointment on Wed. Jan. 6th, with Kaiser Permanente, a very large HMO in the Bay Area. This was the day after Gov. Newsom in California announced it was available to anyone 65 or older.
Theresa, my office assistant’s daughter, was a healthcare worker for Kaiser, and told her to call the next day to set up an appointment. Theresa spent 40 minutes on hold and got her appointment, then called me. I was on hold for 1 hour, 15 minutes.
When I called my brother around 1 pm, he waiting for 2.5 hours and had to wait two weeks for an appointment. The next day it was up to 4 hours or more. It was worth the wait. I worked and had lunch. I had expected to wait until March.
By Sunday, 3 days later, Kaiser was not taking any new appointments.
A few other nearby counties decided to only do 75+. Getting an appointment was much less difficult.
The biggest problem: providers do not know how many doses they will and who has the doses in their county and state.
Most had planned on getting doses from the “reserves” set aside by Operation Warp Speed. At noon, the day after I got my appointment, I attended a public meeting on getting vaccinations, set up by my city’s Mayor. No one seems to know who had all the vaccines, how many they would have in the future, etc., including the County’s Public Health Director.
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