Herd Immunity Florida Style

FLORIDA
WEST COAST        

Opinion by:  
E. Eugene Webb PhD         

Welcome to 2021 and the 2021 version of the Corona virus pandemic.

If you're over 65 and looking to get a Corona virus vaccination, the frustration level is through the roof.

First, the state's decision to put the vaccine distribution and vaccination process in the hands of County government was flawed to say the least.

What we have ended up with in Florida is a hodgepodge of approaches and botched efforts.

It's not really hard to understand how this is all gone awry if you've had any dealings with your local County government in the last few years. County governments tend to be far from the leading edge in the application of technology.

The whole concept of registering and administrating something as sophisticated as a virus vaccination program is well beyond the administrative and technical capacity of even the most advanced County government in Florida.

You do not have to be a technological genius to figure out, if you have thousands or 10s of thousands of people over 65 in your County, there is going to be something similar to a gold rush to get the Covid-19 vaccine.

There was not ample time to set up sufficient website capacity or telecommunications capacity to receive the phone calls, and the administrative staff and workers; for that matter, to deal with this sudden onslaught of vaccine requests.

Add to that the fact that most County health departments, which is where this responsibility was dumped, are way down on the budget list for new systems, new technologies and are usually not well staffed in the 1st place.

Governor DeSantis and his team should have been capable of determining that before they made the decision to pass this responsibility to local County government.

We are going to get through this, there is no doubt about that. However, there really is a significant lesson to be learned here. State and County governments need to be working much more closely in the area of public health. County governments need to provide more resources and more staffing to their County health departments because this is not the last time, we're going to see something like this.

For now, your best approach if you're trying to get an appointment for a Corona vaccination is to watch your local news media and visit their websites in your specific area. Look for the information that they are accumulating and publishing almost on an hour-by-hour basis regarding vaccination sites, times, and current conditions.

Finally, be patient, it is probably not a good idea to get in your car, go get in a line of 50 or 100 other cars and sit there for hours upon hours waiting to get a vaccination.

Like everything else in life, gathering a few facts, getting a little information, and applying some common sense will probably get you a vaccination quicker with less frustration than any other approach.

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