Problems surrounding eligibility prioritization, excluded essential workers, limited access to available appointments, and more related to the rollout of New York State’s COVID-19 vaccine distribution program continue to persist. An easily accessible, statewide pre-registration tool available for every New Yorker’s use, would tackle these issues and provide much-needed peace of mind to an increasingly-anxious population.

I released the following joint statement with Assembly colleagues John McDonald and Carrie Woerner urging the state to create a pre-registration tool.

“In a year when we have all felt at the end of our proverbial rope, and have struggled to just make a knot and hang on until a coveted vaccine appointment could bring a measure of relief — the seeming randomness of the vaccine rollout has only added to the stress. Does any of this sound familiar:

“I’m 85 and I can’t find an available appointment, but my 65-year-old cousin got one.”

“Why are there doses available in Oneida County but not in the Capital Region?”

“When I call my family doctor, she says they aren’t getting any doses and told me to check with the pharmacy. When I check the pharmacy website, all the slots are already filled and they direct me to the COVID hotline. When I call the hotline, I sit on hold for hours.”

“My neighbor’s daughter got up at 4 am and got on the computer and was able to get her parents an appointment, in Plattsburgh, in March.”

It shouldn’t be this hard.

We have a supply and demand problem — New York is receiving only about 265,000 doses each week, and current eligibility includes over 7 million New Yorkers. Every day, another group makes a well-reasoned plea to be on that eligibility list and at this rate, it may take 6 months to vaccinate just the 7 million. There are about 14 million adults who live in New York and thankfully, the federal government has announced an increase in doses and promised even more.

In the meantime, 7 million people are competing to get one of 265,000 vaccine appointments that will be available next week. The probability of getting one of those is scarce; you may have a better chance of winning the lottery than getting a vaccine appointment.

The eligibility priority pool will jump again next week when the most seriously ill, or those with comorbidities and immune-compromised systems, are also added to the eligibility pool. We called for the need to add this at-risk group as they are the single most vulnerable population with an astounding 94% of the COVID-related deaths having been among this population.

We need to do something to manage demand and scheduling in a way that reduces uncertainty and anxiety for everyone — we need to set up a pre-registration system.

The pre-registration registration process would capture an individual’s age, occupation, any underlying health conditions, and how they’d like to be contacted. The state would reprioritize the list based on eligibility phases — healthcare, frontline, essential workers first, those with comorbidities, over 75 next, over 65, and so on. As the vaccine arrives in the state, the Department of Health would allocate a number of doses to each county, pharmacy, and other providers, and provide the list of the same number of people who are next up on the eligibility list. The County Public Health department would then reach out to those specific people, and schedule them for an appointment, making sure to schedule sufficient people on any given day so that no vaccine dose goes to waste. We know it’s possible, because New Jersey, Illinois, California, and Florida are all doing just that. In particular, we can look to Florida which kicked off its pre-registration program last month.

The vaccine distribution process is confusing, frustrating, and makes an already-anxious populace even more so. We need a straightforward system that matches supply with demand.

We recommend the Governor and the Department of Health move to a pre-registration system that will allow the state and counties to simplify the scheduling process, eliminate the competition for vaccine appointments, reduce the need to travel several hours to secure a vaccination, and overall reduce the stress people are experiencing.”