‘We’ve made some mistakes’: County leaders acknowledge frustration with Covid vaccine rollout

While more than 86,000 Covid vaccines have been administered in Pinellas County over the past month and tweaks have been made to improve the registration process, local officials acknowledged the frustrations many people have had in trying to get appointments and the lack of clear communication coming from the county.

“We’ve made some mistakes as far as rolling out the vaccine, and many of you have experienced anxiety, anger and fear, and for that, I’m really sorry,” Dave Eggers, Pinellas County Commission Chair, said during a Facebook Live session Friday afternoon. “We need to do better.”

A large part of the challenge lies with the demand for the vaccine outstripping the supply, Eggers said. In Pinellas County alone, more than 250,000 residents are age 65 and older so it will take time before this population is fully vaccinated. 

“Until we get a larger supply from the federal and state government, the demand is always going to be greater than the supply,” he said. 

County administrator Barry Burton said that the process of registration now includes having people create an account on a patient portal ahead of time and then when a slot opens up, the system will reach out to them to get an appointment scheduled. Ideally, that will prevent the type of system crashes that plagued the early days of the registration process.

“We’re going to be communicating out to register on the site and you can do it at 3 p.m. or at 3 a.m.,” he said.

In terms of outreach to minority populations, which have traditionally been more hesitant to get vaccinated, Florida Department of Health in Pinellas County Director Dr. Ulyee Choe said that the Foundation for a Healthy St. Pete will begin bringing navigators on board and developing street teams that will go door-to-door to help people register on the portal.

“With these collective efforts, hopefully we can improve the disparities,” Choe said.

Overall, Burton and Eggers said that going forward, the county will be working on efforts to communicate what’s going on with the process so people won’t feel like they’re in the dark, though they agree it can be challenging with all the new developments related to vaccine distribution. 

“We’re going to do a better job of making sure that people don’t have frustrations and concerns as they sit there and wait,” Eggers said. “We want to make sure folks understand that we’re doing the best we can, but we need to do a better job of communication.”

They also urged patience.

“We have been through a lot. Things you wouldn’t be able to describe in your wildest imagination,” and we still have a long ways to go. “I just ask you to continue to be patient.”

In terms of Friday’s numbers, The Florida Department of Health reported another 378 cases of Covid-19 in Pinellas County and 18 additional deaths, bringing the cumulative county total since March to 61,001 cases and 1,330 deaths. The two-week percent positivity rate now stands at 6.95 percent. As of Friday afternoon, there were 257 people hospitalized with a primary diagnosis of Covid-19 in Pinellas County’s acute-care hospitals, with 19.3 percent of adult ICU beds available. To view an interactive ZIP code map of Covid cases in Pinellas County, click here. 

To watch the Facebook Live, click here.