How to resolve AdBlock issue? ALBANY — Problems surrounding eligibility prioritization, excluded essential workers, limited access to available appointments, and more related to the rollout of New York State’s COVID-19 vaccine distribution program continue to persist. An easily accessible, statewide pre-registration tool available for every New Yorker’s use, would tackle these issues and provide much-needed peace of mind to an increasingly-anxious population.
Assembly members Patricia Fahy (D-109), John McDonald (D-108), and Carrie Woerner (D-113) released a joint statement urging the state to create a pre-registration tool.
The pre-registration registration process would capture an individual’s age, occupation, any underlying health conditions, and how they’d like to be contacted. The state would reprioritize the list based on eligibility phases — healthcare, frontline, essential workers first, those with comorbidities, over 75 next, over 65, and so on.
As the vaccine arrives in the state, the Department of Health would allocate a number of doses to each county, pharmacy, and other providers, and provide the list of the same number of people who are next up on the eligibility list. The County Public Health department would then reach out to those specific people, and schedule them for an appointment, making sure to schedule sufficient people on any given day so that no vaccine dose goes to waste.
“The vaccine distribution process is confusing, frustrating, and makes an already-anxious populace even more so. We need a straightforward system that matches supply with demand,” reads the statement. “We recommend the Governor and the Department of Health move to a pre-registration system that will allow the state and counties to simplify the scheduling process, eliminate the competition for vaccine appointments, reduce the need to travel several hours to secure a vaccination, and overall reduce the stress people are experiencing.”
