Americans frustrated with vaccine process, including booking on Eventbrite

All 800 vaccination appointments — of which a man sought two for his parents — got filled in two minutes.

Jan 4, 2021

The federal government promised that 20 million Americans would be vaccinated by the end of December. As the year ended, they’d reached only 20 percent of that number.

As of today, according to ABC News, four million doses have been distributed.

Patrick Range Sr. receives a COVID-19 vaccine from RN Susana Flores Villamil — Patrick Range Sr., 88, receives a Pfizer-BioNtech COVID-19 vaccine from RN Susana Flores Villamil last week at Jackson Memorial Hospital in Miami, Florida. Jackson Health System recently began Pfizer COVID-19 vaccinations for people 65 and older in Miami-Dade County. (Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images)

There have been several obstacles to ramping up the vaccination distribution process in America, including available medical personnel, who are already stretched thin as the virus surges after holiday gatherings. Additionally, both the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines require cold storage, but the latter does not require subzero temperatures.

In Florida, the state with the second-largest percentage of seniors in the nation, its elders have had challenges registering for appointments to be vaccinated via Eventbrite, the online ticketing system.

Princeton professor Shamus Khan wrote a now-viral thread on Twitter detailing his experience trying to get his parents registered to be vaccinated.

“There’s SO MUCH that is wrong with this. Including the fact that some of the most at-risk people don’t have access to computers or the internet,” he wrote. “So they are basically totally f**ked with this process. Which doesn’t just put them at risk, it puts all of us at greater risk.”

“The most vulnerable are more likely to die because of the right’s deep commitment to not having a functioning government,” Khan tweeted. “At some point it’s not negligence. It’s murder.”

He added that all 800 appointment slots — of which he sought two — were filled in two minutes.

Many elderly people in Florida are not tech-savvy and have tried to show up at their local health departments in person without an appointment. According to reports, however, they’re being turned away.

Governor Ron DeSantis prioritized residents of the state above age 65 over its essential workers. After nursing-home workers and residents, DeSantis farmed out the vaccination distribution over the next phases to individual counties.

“This is such an important point and one where each state and each county left alone as an island is a setup for an unmitigated disaster, inequitable delivery and inefficiency that could lead to more preventable deaths and hospitalizations,” Dr. Sadiya Khan told NBC News last month.

“The lack of an infrastructure for a vaccine that we’ve literally been planning and known was coming for months is wholeheartedly disappointing,” she added, “but not unexpected.”

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