“Our vaccine scheduling system is currently live, but full with other customers.”

Florida COVID vaccine at Publix Pharmacy website, 6:00 AM

On December 29, 2020, the Florida Department of Health announced that COVID vaccine appointments for seniors could be made by phone. The hotline number was quickly overwhelmed and it crashed due to high call volume and inadequate infrastructure. In Palm Beach County, less than 200 people made it through the line. Two of my friends were lucky.

The next announcement on January 2 invited seniors to request an appointment through a specific health department email. I sent mine that day but got no appointment.

On January 18, I was happy for my husband who received his first dose. His status as a veteran made him eligible.

 On January 19, DOH-Palm Beach deactivated the email address to focus on scheduling vaccine appointments, based on vaccine availability, for those on the waitlist. They had received more than 200,000 requests. I’m on the waitlist. Still.

 Also, on January 19, Governor DeSantis announced that Publix supermarkets would be distributing the vaccine, and appointments could be made online on certain days. The website went live for 14 counties on Wednesday, January 20 and I logged into the site at 5:45am. Palm Beach County was fully booked by 7:16am and all counties by 7:25am. I had no luck.

I tried the Publix site again on Friday, January 22 but went online at 4:45am and waited. At 6:01am, it went live and claimed many people were ahead of me. By 7:45am, all counties were fully booked except those at least 3 hours away. Two roundtrips of at least 6 hours for each of the two doses doesn’t appeal, even if I could get an appointment. Anyway, no luck again.

On January 25, I learned Broward County had been distributing vaccine at sites like Holiday Park in Fort Lauderdale. I called their hotline and left my information and a request for an appointment. I also called the Miami- Dade hotline because they had been administering shots at places like Hard Rock Stadium. The message said they were fully booked. The Martin County hotline message stated their mailbox was full.

 The next opportunity was on Wednesday, January 27. That time I set my laptop sleep mode to “Never” and logged into the Publix site the night before. I figured it should bump me to the front of the line. Not so. I got up at 5am, stared at the screen and waited. When it went live at 6am, I got the same message—many people were ahead of me. Argh! They had added two more counties and two new features this time though. A 60-second countdown clock gave a visual heads-up each time the site was automatically refreshed, and each county showed the available number of vaccines that day with a countdown as they were taken. Palm Beach County started with over 9,500. They were all gone by 7:05am. Nearby counties I would be willing to drive to were fully booked even earlier. Still without an appointment, I was frustrated. I wasn’t alone. News reports had people comparing the system to Whack-A-Mole and The Hunger Games.

 On January 28, I was able to leave my information and a request for an appointment with Miami-Dade.

I tried the same early setup for the Publix site on Friday, January 29. Palm Beach County started with 9,434 available vaccines. By 6:30am, almost 2,000 were taken and, just after sunrise at 7:10am, the “fully booked” message appeared. Surrounding counties were booked by 7:06, and I was still without an appointment.

 On Saturday, January 30, the Florida COVID 19 site offered pre-registration for appointments. I filled out the form and we’ll see what happens.

 In the meanwhile, I’m planning to get up early on Wednesday, February, 3 for the next scheduling event on the Publix site. It’s a crazy annoying system even for someone like me who’s worked with computers since the 1980’s, but it seems almost perverse to have no other option for seniors without computer access or skills and those in impoverished communities without a nearby Publix. It shuts them off from a life-saving opportunity and leaves them at risk. 

 Florida isn’t the only state with problems obtaining the COVID vaccine. As of January 31, The New York Times reported just 7.2% of over-300,000,000 Americans have gotten at least the first dose and only 1.6% have been fully vaccinated. We need a fully-funded national program to get things rolling!