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Philadelphia is setting up its own COVID-19 vaccine registration website, health officials announced Tuesday, contributing to a growing chorus of confusion over a city partner’s existing vaccine registry.
In early January, startup Philly Fighting COVID launched a reporting site in front of its massive vaccination clinic at the Pennsylvania Convention Center. The organization’s announcement states that the preparation of vaccines was “at the end of the Department of Public Health in Philadelphia.”
According to the group, more than 60,000 people entered their information on PFC’s website, which said all registration details are shared with the health department.
Health Commissioner Dr Thomas Farley denied that was the case. The city has no oversight of the preliminary medical database provided by PFC’s early registrants, Farley said Tuesday.
“This is not our attempt to pre-register, and it’s not an official city registry,” Department of Health spokesman James Garrow told WHYY News last week. “We do not use it, do not judge it and look.”
The city does have a relationship with Philly Fighting COVID, Farley explained: It offers the group thousands of vaccination doses that can be distributed each week. But the only information shared with the city is information about people who have been vaccinated – not someone who has enrolled.
PFC’s login page, which uses the COVIDReadi portal, makes it clear that this is not an appointment and that it is not a place in the queue. The promise is that those who enter information about their occupation, age and other relevant criteria will be notified as soon as their group is eligible.
“Because we work so closely with the Department of Health, we will have the information available to any other agencies,” said Karol Osipowicz, a professor at Drexel who serves as the group’s chief scientific officer, during a tour of the clinic. said when it first opened on January 8 in the conference center.
However, according to users who spoke to WHYY, the fitness information did not always match the city’s priority schedule. Some residents were worried that the attempt could be a phishing scam because they had never heard of the group, a nine-month-old business.
The landing page for the PFC application contains an official city stamp that gives a sense of legitimacy to an organization that is otherwise unknown. But the seal is actually the official hallmark of the city council – which denies having approved Philly Fighting COVID to use its trademark.
“The Board has not approved the use of its seal on this website,” said Joe Grace, Director of Communications for Darrell Clarke, Chairman of the Board. ‘We reached out to the representatives of the organization and asked them to remove the Council seal. The Council has no role in this organization. ”
The city’s newly proposed pre-registration system, which is expected to go into effect by the end of the week, will not connect with PFCs at all, Farley said on Tuesday.
It was unclear what would happen to the tens of thousands who registered with PFC’s system, and whether they would have to register with the city’s register again.
To vaccinate people before they are officially eligible
On Tuesday, Philadelphia officially opened the vaccination for the most at-risk categories within Phase 1B, including people over 75 and those with certain chronic medical conditions.
However, when Philly Fighting COVID opened its pop-up vaccination clinic in the conference center, only Phase 1A health workers were eligible. The link to sign up for appointments was, after all, accessible to anyone who obtained it.
Aimee Knaus, a case manager of a refugee resettlement organization, said WHY a friend sent her the PFC link. Because she thought she was eligible to be vaccinated, she immediately signed up.
“It really looked like you were a person who somehow got this link, it was you who would be vaccinated,” she said.
Shortly afterwards, the same friend told her that the link was not actually intended for the general public, and Knaus decided to cancel her appointment. She thought of her clients – 25 families, most of whom work in the front line and do not speak English, never had access to this type of early registration.
The experience caused her to lose confidence in the vaccine delivery process, Knaus said.
While rumors were circulating, others who got their hands on the link did not cancel their appointments, even though they knew they were not yet eligible.