The psychological impacts of how one is required to obtain a COVID-19 vaccination in Massachusetts could have been foreseen, but, understandably, they were not: our state has never before attempted to vaccinate more than four million citizens in a compressed timeframe during a global pandemic.
Today, most Massachusetts citizens who want to get a shot for COVID-19 -- unlike their counterparts, say, in New Jersey or Florida or New Mexico -- have to get on a new state website and hunt for their own appointment at the same time that hundreds of thousand of other folks are hunting too. With demand for shots far exceeding supply, the large majority of vaccine seekers have not succeeded in securing these coveted appointments.
People are spending long periods on computers filling out the required form, only to be told at the expected culmination of the process that there are no available appointments and they'll have to try again later. When they sign off, all the information they have provided vanishes, meaning they'll have to fill out the form again (and again) until one day they get lucky.
If the Governor Baker administration had, instead, incorporated a central registration feature into its electronic sign-ups, as some other states have done, persons would have filled out the form only once and subsequently been notified when appointments in their areas became available.
No system designed in a hurry to deal with an unprecedented national medical emergency would ever have been perfect, and I'm sure there are some drawbacks and downsides to a system built around central registration; however, one of the beauties of central registration is that it provides users with an instant feeling of accomplishment or progress. People feel: "I'm in the system. They know me. It's a just matter of time before I get my shot."
By contrast, in Massachusetts, way too many folks who are doing what they are instructed to do, and failing repeatedly to secure an appointment, have become frustrated and obsessed about when, or even whether, they'll be able to get a shot. They feel: "I've put hours into this and gotten nowhere. Next week, I'll have to do it again -- and probably strike out again. I'm on the outs. And no one cares."
Mass frustration with the COVID-19 vaccine finder website is overshadowing the actual good results of this program.
As of last Wednesday, Feb. 24, 1,084,888 persons had received at least one dose of a vaccine, and 433,593 persons had received both doses. Also, 77% of vaccine doses shipped here by the federal government had been administered.
Massachusetts is best in the nation for first doses administered per capita among states with five million or more citizens, and ranks second in the nation for percentage of Black residents who have gotten at least one shot.
Also, Massachusetts has administered more than three times the doses per capita as the European Union and more than five times per capita as Canada.
State Senator Diane DiZoglio, D-Methuen, has filed a bill that would require the Executive Office of Health and Human Services to institute a central registration system for COVID-19 vaccinations. If I were the governor, I'd pre-empt that by ordering EOHHS to implement such a system as soon as possible. Right away people would feel better about the program. And maybe they'd start thinking about the good things the administration has done in fighting the pandemic.
HEAD-SPINNING NUMBERS: During a virtual hearing this past Thursday of the legislature's Joint Committee on COVID-19 and Emergency Preparedness, Charlie Baker was asked for the numbers on federal pandemic aid to the Commonwealth. His answer made me sit up and take notice. Seventy-one billion dollars has come to Massachusetts one way or another through four major federal relief programs, Baker said, adding that $20 billion-plus of that went to unemployment insurance, $27 billion to Payroll Protection Program benefits for businesses, and $8 billion to stimulus checks for individuals and families. It's hard to imagine how badly we'd be doing now without that help from Washington.
UPDATE, 3-11-21: Gov. Baker announced yesterday that the Commonwealth will be implementing this Friday a new pre-registration system for residents seeking a COVID-19 vaccination. They will be able to fill out a form online or by phone, which will put them in a virtual queue for appointments. On a first-registered, first-serve basis, registrants will then be notified when an appointment is available at one of the seven large, regional vaccination sites near them.
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