The news began spreading on social media and in personal messages and conversations Friday: The state of Utah is reportedly struggling to meet vaccinations commitments for COVID-19 and vaccines may be lost.
So thousands of Utahns went to the new system at vaccinate.utah.gov. Due to a mistake by the State Department of Technology Services, the state acknowledges that the website allowed them to schedule appointments – despite not meeting specific health conditions or being old enough to meet current criteria.
So while the flawed website led these Utahns to believe the empty slots and wider access existed, they didn’t – and now 7,200 people have canceled or canceled their appointments themselves, and some are facing social media attacks.
“I’m not a vaccine hunter,” said Kristin Fredrickson, 35, of Salt Lake City. ‘People slander me for signing up for a vaccine. That’s not what happened at all. “
She and several other people told the same story – they heard that vaccines went unused and appointments were not filled, so they went to the website to register.
“That’s what prompted us to do it,” said Dustin Wolters, 38, from Riverton. “I thought, if they don’t use it and the vaccines go to waste, I don’t want to miss it.”
[Read more: A flawed design by state employees allowed 7,200 unqualified Utahs to sign up for COVID-19 vaccine, officials say]
He heard it from a friend who heard it from an uncle who is a doctor. Julie Bartel heard about it from a friend who is a professor at the University of Utah. A social media post making the rounds quoted a doctor in the U.’s emergency room; a spokeswoman said Monday that the U. is looking at that tweet.
“Arrangements are made in 100% good faith,” said Bartel. “No one tried to jump the line, but rather to make sure the shots didn’t go unused, which didn’t seem unrealistic given the news reports about the percentage of Utahns likely to abandon vaccination altogether.”
Gov. Spencer Cox had said last week that “from April and May, our main concern will be the hesitation of vaccines, such as how can we convince people to get this vaccine because we have so many of them.”
Wolters tried to call the regional health department to verify the information he had heard, he said, but more than 50 callers were on hold for him. “And without being able to do that, we didn’t want to miss our chance.”
And he also thought the story of unscheduled appointments seemed plausible.
“I personally know people who have received a vaccine because of the circumstances in which people did not show up for appointments,” he said. “So it seemed like there was some basis of truth in the story we had heard.”
And when he answered all the questions truthfully and was still allowed to register for an appointment, he said, it seemed like confirmation that what he had been told about unused vaccine doses was true.
“I thought this was legit,” agreed Fredrickson. ‘You assume that a government website is correctly programmed. It shouldn’t let you register if it’s not okay. “
And they are especially frustrated that they are labeled as cheaters or line jumpers. There is a “strong innuendo that all of us who have answered truthfully and applied in good faith have deliberately done something wrong,” Bartel said.
“I was really upset,” said Fredrickson. “Because we followed every guideline. We stayed at home. We haven’t seen any family in over a year. We didn’t go to Christmas. I have not seen my mother. I have not seen my father. We missed weddings. We missed birthdays. “
They feel they are blamed by public opinion without an adequate apology or response from government officials. Salt Lake County and state engineer employees became aware Friday night that there was a problem, spokesmen said Monday.
Salt Lake County’s social media outlining that the vaccine’s suitability had not changed did not begin until after Saturday afternoon, and it did not initially refer to or explain the outage on the website that allowed unqualified residents to make arrangements .
The Utah Department of Health issued a statement after 6 p.m. Saturday explaining that there was an error in the site.
“The response from the government / health department has been discouraging,” said Bartel. “Hardly an apology for the inconvenience and inconvenience and crushing disappointment of canceling appointments. No real explanation of how or why this happened.
“Listening to my sister-in-law shed tears of relief that her eldest high school daughter – who was forced to go back to school four days a week from this week – was on a vaccination appointment was a moment I won’t forget. Knowing that the appointment was canceled 24 hours later, I will not forget either. “
Brenda Wiebe, 35, from Salt Lake City said it was “incredibly disappointing to believe she had an appointment that was only canceled. For a moment I could see the end of the tunnel. A place where selfish people who don’t wear masks in supermarkets and the elevator in my building no longer endanger my life, because then I would be protected. “
Wolters and his wife, Tristen, are both 38 and have no pre-existing conditions. They take care of an older family member who has been diagnosed with cancer, “so we thought, ‘If we can get it, we can reduce the risk of exposing him,” Wolters said.
They are not upset that they have yet to wait their turn, but they are frustrated that they thought they signed up correctly to cancel their appointments.
“If there are people who need it more than we do, I get it,” he said. “We don’t want to take it from them.”
That’s another common chorus among those who thought they were making legitimate deals to get them canceled. “I don’t want to get vaccinated until it’s rightly my turn,” said Jason Black, 45, of Salt Lake City. “Let teachers, frontline workers and older people etc. get theirs first, but what a disappointment.”