Ineffective. Frustrating. Discouraging.
These are some of the more polite words residents have used in recent days to describe the experience of registering for their second-dose COVID-19 vaccinations in New Hampshire.
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Much of the anger is directed at VAMS, the free online platform expanded by the CDC that has promised government officials and local health officials to plan a streamlined system for vaccine appointment and vaccine monitoring.
But while about 40 other states eventually decided not to use VAMS, and instead built or contracted their own systems for scheduling appointments, New Hampshire signed up and kept it with VAMS, despite the apparent flaws of the system.
The state declined to comment on a list of specific questions about why he chose to use VAMS. But recent statements by a top health official in New Hampshire may have had no other options due to a unique gap in the state’s existing public health system: New Hampshire remains the only state in the country without a fully functioning vaccine registry.
“In order to do this scheduling in the absence of a fully-fledged vaccination registry, we use CDC’s VAMS system,” said Dr. Beth Daly, head of the Bureau of Disease Control for DHHS, told lawmakers.
According to public health officials, vaccine information allows states to better track vaccinations, which can lead to higher vaccination rates. In 2014, New Hampshire spent $ 1.3 million to set up a vaccine registry, only to see the project go through the software in its late stages.
In December 2019, the same month that a new coronavirus was detected for the first time in Wuhan, China, the New Hampshire Executive Council approved a $ 1.5 million grant to re-establish a nationwide vaccine registry. However, the system is still not fully functional, making New Hampshire the only country without the introduction of a vaccine registry.
“We are working to set it up now,” Daly told members of the NH House Committee on Health and Human Services Committee on Friday.
In 2020, with the largest mass vaccination effort in recent history, the CDC set up a nationwide system to plan and detect COVID-19 vaccinations. The federal government has awarded consulting firm Deloitte a $ 44 million contract to design and launch the program.
But early reviews of VAMS appear to be negative enough to convince most states to choose different systems to plan vaccine vaccination. These include Maine, where Drs. Nirav Shah of the state’s public health office told WMTW that VAMS “did not meet anyone’s expectations.” Instead, Maine chooses to build its own platform.
According to Marshall Taylor, who heads the state’s health department, he mentions quite a few frustrations with his rollout in South Carolina.
The CDC says in total only ten “jurisdictions” and a single hospital system currently use VAMS.
One of the jurisdictions is New Hampshire, where residents are currently eligible for VAMS vaccinations, after pre-registering through a state website. (Residents can also call the state’s hotline 2-1-1 to schedule appointments.)
After the walk, residents receive an email from VAMS inviting them to make an appointment. However, some residents complained that they never received the invitation email from VAMS, or that they were confused by the language on the website after making an account.
There have also been complaints about user-friendliness for people who connect via smartphones and tablets, and that VAMS does not work when Internet Explorer is used as a web browser.
Over the past few days, anger towards VAMS has only increased after a new appointment for second doses for residents who are currently experiencing long waiting times between the first and second vaccination rounds.
On Tuesday, officials in New Hampshire blamed VAMS for the problem, apologized for the confusion and promised to make new appointments into the system within 48 hours. A spokesman for Gov. Chris Sununu called VAMS “awkward” and said the state was working on an alternative system for the next phase of the vaccination.
The CDC did not respond to a request for comment. Numerous New Hampshire residents, meanwhile, say their struggle to navigate VAMS is already contributing to an already tense situation.
“The general attitude is that it’s a mess or like the Hunger Games,” said Diane Freedman of Durham, who on Tuesday tried to use VAMS to reschedule her second dose appointment, only to find out there were no earlier dates. was not available.
One criticism of VAMS is that users do not allow it to search appointments without first canceling their already scheduled date. Without the search feature, some residents say they are not willing to give up already reserved time slots, even if the appointments are outside the CDC’s recommended 42-day period between vaccinations.
“I’m completely frustrated,” said Dorothy Powell of Western Lebanon, who tried to use the VAMS website on Tuesday to reschedule her second dose appointment. “I was so happy to get the notice to go in and reschedule my April time, but now I do not even have the time because they told me to cancel it.”
Although individual users may choose to express their frustrations with local media or on social media, states could express their concerns about VAMS during regular scheduled meetings with the CDC.
“We are still in touch with the CDC regarding issues with people trying to schedule appointments at the right time and place in VAMS,” Jake Leon, spokesman for the Department of Health and Human Services in New Hampshire, said in a statement. “The CDC has responded to these issues.”
Leon added that the state ‘successfully used VAMS for the ordering and management of vaccines during phase 1A of the COVID-19 vaccination. However, this is the first time a system in NH has been used for massive pandemic vaccinations. ”
During an interview with NHPR this week, Daly said that the state is launching a new vaccination management system that only requires a single step to register and schedule an appointment ‘which we will have ready in the next few weeks have.’
However, it is not clear whether the state will completely get rid of VAMS or still rely on the system for behind-the-scenes coordination of the ongoing efforts to vaccinate residents.