Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I knew the DC portal was going to be a barrier when vaccine supply started to increase. They only release appointments 3x/week and a lot of people are going to cancel or not book appointments now that they are getting them elsewhere, or are "vaccine hesitant." Time to open it up for everyone to book on their own. To the extent DC has concerns about equity and access, it needs to be PROACTIVE and go directly to those communities.

This will be the excuse the city tries to run with as to why appointments aren't filling up, but it doesn't hold water since it is not an appointment they are flaking on. Just not booking one after receiving the email.

Well, they won't fill up if people don't book them, right? My understanding is that DC emails out the appointment invitations on a rationed basis. If it's already rationed, and then 50% of the invitees don't sign up, and DC doesn't clean up its lists, and only emails out invites 3x/week ... it's going to take FOREVER to get through everyone. They'll be repeatedly inviting people who are already vaxxed or don't intend to be.

Anonymous wrote:I knew the DC portal was going to be a barrier when vaccine supply started to increase. They only release appointments 3x/week and a lot of people are going to cancel or not book appointments now that they are getting them elsewhere, or are "vaccine hesitant." Time to open it up for everyone to book on their own. To the extent DC has concerns about equity and access, it needs to be PROACTIVE and go directly to those communities.

This will be the excuse the city tries to run with as to why appointments aren't filling up, but it doesn't hold water since it is not an appointment they are flaking on. Just not booking one after receiving the email.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What more is the government supposed to do to get Black and Hispanics to get a vaccine? They are literally going door to door and waiting at bus stops and metro exits to assist/escort folks to vaccine appt.

Quite frankly - at this stage of the vaccine rollout - I am not sure what else can be done. Shall we offer all minorities a monetary reward to get a vaccine? Is that fair to the thousands of other residents who want but can not get a vaccine?

+1

We'll, I saw a flyer online for a Ward 8 event this weekend where they are also handing out $25 gift cards to residents who get the vaccine. No idea where the money is coming from. But yes, seems that they are now offering a monetary reward. Both the reward the gift card is only available to those from certain zip codes.

I have no problem with doing this kind of targeted outreach. I DO have a problem with blocking access to everyone else while they roll it out.

I knew the DC portal was going to be a barrier when vaccine supply started to increase. They only release appointments 3x/week and a lot of people are going to cancel or not book appointments now that they are getting them elsewhere, or are "vaccine hesitant." Time to open it up for everyone to book on their own. To the extent DC has concerns about equity and access, it needs to be PROACTIVE and go directly to those communities.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What more is the government supposed to do to get Black and Hispanics to get a vaccine? They are literally going door to door and waiting at bus stops and metro exits to assist/escort folks to vaccine appt.

Quite frankly - at this stage of the vaccine rollout - I am not sure what else can be done. Shall we offer all minorities a monetary reward to get a vaccine? Is that fair to the thousands of other residents who want but can not get a vaccine?

+1

We'll, I saw a flyer online for a Ward 8 event this weekend where they are also handing out $25 gift cards to residents who get the vaccine. No idea where the money is coming from. But yes, seems that they are now offering a monetary reward. Both the reward the gift card is only available to those from certain zip codes.

Anonymous wrote:

Just in case you still believe in the DC Health vaccine portal.

whaaaat this is SO FRUSTRATING!! They need to be allowed to use their own portal. I just booked through Walgreens for a high risk relative, who has been waiting weeks after preregistering in the DC portal.

Anonymous wrote:

Just in case you still believe in the DC Health vaccine portal.

This reporting shows that all of the excuses so far have been total bullshit.

Despite terrific reporting from Zauzmer, It is enraging that the she offered this excuse the city has given at face value with no pushback: "D.C. aims to avoid the headaches that residents in other states have encountered, checking multiple providers’ websites at all hours of the day."

Anonymous wrote:

Just in case you still believe in the DC Health vaccine portal.

I am enraged by this.

i got my invite yesterday.

its time. shots in arms.

Giant doesn't have enough available arms to stick the vaccine in, yet the DC portal continues to suck.

Just in case you still believe in the DC Health vaccine portal.

Anonymous wrote:There is no real issue of racism in the equity of vaccine distribution in dc. The broader issue is whether the black community is open to actually taking the vaccine. https://www.cnn.com/2021/02/04/health/vaccine-trust-black-adults-nfid-survey/index.html

To assess the equity issue, you would have to look at vaccine hesitation across racial groups. The source cited in the CNN study only polled Black people, but Pew reported earlier this month that 61% of Black adults have already received or plan to receive the vaccine, compared with 69% of white adults. That gap is not sufficient to explain CNN's finding that "vaccine coverage is twice as high among White people on average than it is among Black and Hispanic people."

https://www.pewresearch.org/science/2021/03/05/growing-share-of-americans-say-they-plan-to-get-a-covid-19-vaccine-or-already-have/

Anonymous wrote:What more is the government supposed to do to get Black and Hispanics to get a vaccine? They are literally going door to door and waiting at bus stops and metro exits to assist/escort folks to vaccine appt.

Quite frankly - at this stage of the vaccine rollout - I am not sure what else can be done. Shall we offer all minorities a monetary reward to get a vaccine? Is that fair to the thousands of other residents who want but can not get a vaccine?

+1

What more is the government supposed to do to get Black and Hispanics to get a vaccine? They are literally going door to door and waiting at bus stops and metro exits to assist/escort folks to vaccine appt.

Quite frankly - at this stage of the vaccine rollout - I am not sure what else can be done. Shall we offer all minorities a monetary reward to get a vaccine? Is that fair to the thousands of other residents who want but can not get a vaccine?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’ve lived in DC for 25 years. After doing everything right for 13 months I just got my vaccine, in Virginia. I won’t forget this Mayor Bowser and Mary Cheh.

Do you have a health condition? Are you a teacher? How old are you? What made you think you would be eligible to be vaccinated in March?

Other states have reached the point where a much larger percentage of the population is eligible much sooner than in DC. The city is failing in the most basic function of government: public health and safety.

The whole system is overtly political. The “vaccine buddies” who have access to special appointments wear vests in Bowser signature green and the same font her campaign uses. Coincidence?

https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/dc-vaccine-disparities/2021/03/25/f9661460-8126-11eb-81db-b02f0398f49a_story.html