Getting My Rona Vaccine. Essex County

One of us has been there numerous times processing a few hundred people and seeing every appointment.  One of sees the issues and can speak to where they stem from - early systems issues as they were getting the site up and running.  One of us sees that those early issues have gone down dramatically.

Hint: it's not you. I don't need to go to Coda.

 

Not downplaying specific screw ups but have to agree that looking at the national rollout of a logistically difficult unprecedented vaccine program, really just a few weeks in, and pronouncing it as a disaster is a bit much.  I think the country is going to hit a million jabs a day this week, which was viewed as highly optimistic just a couple of weeks ago.  If  Moderna and Pfizer are to be believed, they will each have produced 100 million doses by the end of March.  J&J is likely to come on line in February adding to the supply, with a logistically easier one shot vaccine.   Things will undoubtedly be difficult, there will we glitches and fights about priority, but things will get better.

First, someone recently (within the last week) posted on here (I forgot which thread) that they signed up for the Essex County vaccine but didn’t receive their confirmation, so they signed up again.  The problems with notifications weren’t just at the beginning, they’re still ongoing.  And because of these issues someone has now signed up twice making one appointment unavailable for people who need it.

sbenois said:

Or, perhaps you can just chill out while it gets resolved?

 

 Yeah, you’re right, it was mostly old poor people of color who were being left out of the system for nearly a month.  They don’t count anyway, right?

You said that I did not.  

sbenois said:

You said that I did not.  

 I was outraged that systems were in place that were effectively denying these people equal access to the vaccine.  People at a much higher risk of dying.  And not a short term glitch, but for nearly a month.  You’re reply was “chill out.”  It speaks for itself.

RobertRoe said:

I agree that Joe D. has been way ahead of most places and has done an excellent job.  I have been volunteering at the K-Mart in West Orange.   I think I heard Joe D say on the news that if we get enough vaccine that he will run the clinics 24/7...so good leadership.    I think a big problem has been the lack of vaccines.   The national news tonight was very confusing and it is not at all clear how much and when more vaccine will be arriving.    

I have signed up to volunteer twice but I've heard nothing from the county.

spontaneous said:

sbenois said:

You said that I did not.  

 I was outraged that systems were in place that were effectively denying these people equal access to the vaccine.  People at a much higher risk of dying.  And not a short term glitch, but for nearly a month.  You’re reply was “chill out.”  It speaks for itself.

It only speaks to your ongoing ability to find fault wherever you can while assuming evil intent on the part of others.

And it says quite a bit more about you than it does about me.  Now please do me a favor, get back on your high horse and go yell at Washingon.   Thanks.

yahooyahoo said:

RobertRoe said:

I agree that Joe D. has been way ahead of most places and has done an excellent job.  I have been volunteering at the K-Mart in West Orange.   I think I heard Joe D say on the news that if we get enough vaccine that he will run the clinics 24/7...so good leadership.    I think a big problem has been the lack of vaccines.   The national news tonight was very confusing and it is not at all clear how much and when more vaccine will be arriving.    

I have signed up to volunteer twice but I've heard nothing from the county.

 Don't expect to in the short term.  They are okay for volunteers at the moment.   Over 550 people volunteered just from Mapso as of a few weeks ago.

Roughly 2/3 of New Jersey’s vaccines are still in vials

New Jersey has “set aside” vaccines for nursing homes.  Why the delays in administering them, they should be on their second shot by now.

Essex County has a website that for nearly a month denied poorer and older people from signing up.

Issues with delayed or missing communication from the Essex county website has lead to people signing up for more than one appointment, as witnessed by a volunteer at the vaccine location AND more recently done by one of the posters here.

My husband used to pronounce 1-2 patients a month, in March he pronounced more patients in two weeks than he usually pronounces in a year.  He’s seeing a huge uptick in patients with the second wave.  We are seeing multiple states doing a much better job of getting vaccines into their populations.  This is a problem.  People are dying.  

Please don't. Just don't, please. These troubles with the vaccine roll-out are sounding just like the problems the NJ contact tracing effort experienced over the summer. We heard the "trying to fly the plane as we're building it" plea often enough - but it was true. The software systems and databases that were cobbled together needed more resources than were available. Lessons were learned the hard way. Capacity was overwhelmed. Rutgers took it on over the summer but that institution wasn't prepared to handle the HR duties involved in ramping up a workforce of over 1000 people. There was training to do. Protocols to be developed and documentation (and trying to find a notary for the I-9 forms in pandemic world was fun) to be filed. Pay structures. 

That whole process had/still has potholes but we're working on it. The vaccine delivery folks are working on it, too. 

sbenois said:

It only speaks to your ongoing ability to find fault wherever you can while assuming evil intent on the part of others.

And it says quite a bit more about you than it does about me.  Now please do me a favor, get back on your high horse and go yell at Washingon.   Thanks.

 It also says a lot about you that a vulnerable population was ignored for weeks and your reply was “chill out” and you just can’t admit your answer was extremely tone deaf and dismissive of people less privileged than you.

Bikefixed, my husband has the COVID app.  He literally has no idea anymore of how many patients he has treated.  Every day he is dispatched to Covid patients.  He has literally received zero notifications on his app that he has been near a confirmed case.  The app is useless.  It’s actually worse than useless because people are downloading it thinking it will work.

spontaneous said:

 It also says a lot about you that a vulnerable population was ignored for weeks and your reply was “chill out” and you just can’t admit your answer was extremely tone deaf and dismissive of people less privileged than you.

 Have a great day.

yahooyahoo said:

RobertRoe said:

I agree that Joe D. has been way ahead of most places and has done an excellent job.  I have been volunteering at the K-Mart in West Orange.   I think I heard Joe D say on the news that if we get enough vaccine that he will run the clinics 24/7...so good leadership.    I think a big problem has been the lack of vaccines.   The national news tonight was very confusing and it is not at all clear how much and when more vaccine will be arriving.    

I have signed up to volunteer twice but I've heard nothing from the county.

 Both my husband and I have signed up to volunteer.  We quickly got a response that asked for more info (actually mostly the same info we had already provided) but haven't heard anything since then and it has been several weeks.

Deep breath everyone.  I'm appreciating everyone's POV in this thread.  Like with the rollout of Obamacare - things can be tricky.  Let's just hope we have the right people in place to make the proper adjustments.

spontaneous said:

Bikefixed, my husband has the COVID app.  He literally has no idea anymore of how many patients he has treated.  Every day he is dispatched to Covid patients.  He has literally received zero notifications on his app that he has been near a confirmed case.  The app is useless.  It’s actually worse than useless because people are downloading it thinking it will work.

 The app might not be helping. I have it but have never been pinged by it and I am in direct (albeit brief) contact with many positive cases when I deliver food.

What I was referring to was the CommCare database and system for contact tracing and disease investigating. A different animal altogether. That system and the CDRSS have been the workhorse for NJ's efforts.

sbenois said:

Apparently the same email can be used for multiple people.  I will know for certain on Monday.

 I was finally able to get a date for the vaccine at SEARS.  I was so excited that I didn't even write down the date I chose.  When I tried to go back in to see when it was, I got the message that I had already registered and if I was looking to register someone else, I had to use a different email address for them.

I will speak to them on Monday

spontaneous said:

 So if Joe’s elderly relative doesn’t have email and Joe signs up for them, then Joe can’t sign up for himself because his email address can only be used once?  Is this the state or the county that is stupid enough to just assumes that every single resident in the state has an email address?  

I asked a relative who works at a Newark hospital her opinion on this.  She was shocked to hear that email addresses cannot be used more than once, as the majority of her elderly patients do not have email, and do not have smart phones, and would normally use a younger relative if something HAD to be done by email.  One appointment slot per emails address is going to be disastrous for elder poor people.  

I’m sorry, but **** show absolutely applies, especially when making it nearly impossible for economically disadvantaged seniors to get the vaccine.

 At the present time, mobile phone number is a required field when you are finally able to successfully register with the County (find a date that is not full and select it).  As stated in the above comment, not all seniors have a mobile phone number.  This can be a factor of age as well as economics.  What do people do if they can't receive texts and lack a computer printer?  Will they be turned away?  

sbenois said:

I will speak to them on Monday

 Thank you.  I would just like to know what date I requested (confirmation email did not say) so I can share the info with the kind family member who offered to drive me there and back so I  could avoid an hour long trip each way on the 70 bus.  I understand from the confirmation email I received that I might not even get the date I requested.  Still, I would like to know the procedure in such a case so I can share the information with the senior advocacy groups I work with. Please share what you learn.

,Just got mine scheduled for Feb.13 at Sears. Things are moving along. Tried last night and nothing was available. 

It appears that everyone's experience is different. My wife and I registered about 2 weeks ago and never heard back. We stopped by the vaccine center in Livingston and they said my wife was registered but I was not. It appears that I had registered on the NJ site rather than the Essex site. They straightened this out and said I would get an email or text with an appointment. They confirmed my wife's registration and told her the same thing. A few minutes after we got home my wife received an email with an appointment.

I am still waiting.

sbenois said:

I will speak to them on Monday

 When you speak with them tomorrow, please ask about how to cancel an appointment. By now, I am sure there are people on several waiting lists... Essex County, State, Summit Medical Group, and Atlantic Healthcare are 4 that I am aware of. St. B probably also has a wait list. 

Formerlyjerseyjack said:

sbenois said:

I will speak to them on Monday

 When you speak with them tomorrow, please ask about how to cancel an appointment. By now, I am sure there are people on several waiting lists... Essex County, State, Summit Medical Group, and Atlantic Healthcare are 4 that I am aware of. St. B probably also has a wait list. 

 After I was able to get a different appointment, I called Essex and got myself off the Essex list.  That was weeks ago.  I had no trouble getting through by phone but maybe it's harder now.

Formerlyjerseyjack said:

sbenois said:

I will speak to them on Monday

 When you speak with them tomorrow, please ask about how to cancel an appointment. By now, I am sure there are people on several waiting lists... Essex County, State, Summit Medical Group, and Atlantic Healthcare are 4 that I am aware of. St. B probably also has a wait list. 

Essex County does not have the ability or resources to coordinate cancellation across the numerous medical organizations out there.   If you get a shot from Essex County and you are on a waiting list at SMG for example, you should be calling SMG to get off of their list.

Conversely, if you get a shot from a medical provider, you should call the Essex Covid ASAPnumber to cancel...and yes it is often hard to get through...because if you don't show up for an appointment, it means that someone else could have gotten a shot.    

Agreed, everyone's experience is different, I have had partial success.  I signed up myself and my mother in law last week at the state website and received our categories. She is 1B and I am 1C which is correct according to the guidelines. We both have our own mobile numbers and email addresses. Then three nights ago, after trying several times,  I was able to pick an appointment time on the Essex covid site for both of us, different locations and dates. We both received the email to confirm our emails. Yesterday she (1B) received an email with appointment dates and times for her first and second shot at Essex County. Nothing yet for me (1C) at Sears. So I do see some progress and I am happy she is rightfully ahead of me. Hopefully, my email will come soon but I wonder if I can stop by the vaccination site to find out if there is an issue with my registration? Or do we just have to wait?

I am a bit concerned, as at first, I accidentally signed up for a Covid Test by clicking on the Test link instead of the Vaccine link using the same email address for both. I did get an email confirming my Covid Test appoint which I do not need and I am hoping I can figure out how to cancel it as there is no online option to cancel. 

Just so I'm clear, are people saying that after initially registering successfully but without getting a date, follow up visits  to the web site have generated vaccination dates?  They've acknowledged my wife as 1c but she's been registered for a couple of weeks and has not heard back about a date.

bub said:

Just so I'm clear, are people saying that after initially registering successfully but without getting a date, follow up visits  to the web site have generated vaccination dates?  They've acknowledged my wife as 1c but she's been registered for a couple of weeks and has not heard back about a date.

I am not 100% sure but I "think" the state website just places us in the categories? Then it appears that we then have to register on the county website (https://www.essexcovid.org/) to get an appointment since the county website will not let you register unless you pick an appointment location and date. That is how my mother in law received her appointment. But again, it is all very confusing and others may know more. 

WorkingMom said:

I am not 100% sure but I "think" the state website just places us in the categories? Then it appears that we then have to register on the county website (https://www.essexcovid.org/) to get an appointment since the county website will not let you register unless you pick an appointment location and date. That is how my mother in law received her appointment. But again, it is all very confusing and others may know more. 

 The state website is supposed to tell you what category you’re in, and if you’re currently eligible.  If you’re not eligible at the time you sign up then they say they’ll notify you when you do do become eligible and at that time will also supply you with a list of places based on your location that you can contact to make an appointment.  

I signed up in early January, and was told I was not yet eligible, which at that time was correct.  A few days later, on Jan. 6th, I received an email confirming the same.  

When they announced that they were going to be opening up the vaccines to more people, I stupidly waited to receive my email saying I was eligible and with the list of places I could call.  By the time I realized that I was not going to receive the email, every place local to me is booked 100%.  

To date I still have not received the email saying I am now eligible, though I have received an email saying I should sign up for the Covid app, something I already did quite awhile ago.

Basically, the state pre-registration site is useless.  Like the Covid app it is designed to make you feel like you’re taking a proactive step when in reality it does nothing at all.  

Don’t bother with the state site.  Just get the list who who has the vaccine and keep calling.  
 

WorkingMom said:

 but I wonder if I can stop by the vaccination site to find out if there is an issue with my registration? Or do we just have to wait?

You can. We did. At least they will confirm whether you are correctly registered and if not will register you.