Long Lines, Crashing Websites, Conflicting Information Confound COVID-19 Vaccine Rollout to Florida Seniors

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis recently issued a directive ignoring U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommendations for COVID-19 vaccine priority by putting Floridians 65 and older ahead of essential workers, even as many healthcare employees in the state await their shot, reports USA Today . Since then, immunizations have been muddled by website crashes, long queues, and conflicting information as medical systems and counties scramble to establish distribution systems for groups they had not counted on vaccinating for at least a week or two. Florida's latest vaccination data indicates that 122,881 people received the first dose of a two-shot vaccine as of Monday morning, while Johns Hopkins University estimated that Florida had been allocated 546,400 doses as of Dec. 16. "We know there are broad-stroke ideas of how vaccinating the general population is supposed to work, but as the vaccine gets distributed deeper and deeper into the system, it's going to get more complicated," said Glen Nowak at the University of Georgia's Center for Health and Risk Communications. With that complexity increasing, he added that state and county health departments must be allocated additional time and funding. Also frustrating is the federal government's apparent inaction in setting up a vaccination infrastructure, according to Brown University School of Public Health Dean Ashish Jha.