Organization is key in state, local vaccine efforts

Organization, planning and communication are normally a good thing. When it comes to a COVID-19 mass vaccine distribution they are a must.

When your location happens to be the first of its kind in the state — twice — those items are magnified.

Poplar Bluff officials faced that scenario in the days leading up to the first vaccination event on Jan. 22 and again this week for Friday’s second-dose distribution. We were the guinea pigs so to speak.

There were a lot of moving parts in the days leading up to the actual events, and some in our community have questioned if registration and communication were handled properly for the second event.

The DAR helped register many for the first event, with the majority coming from those who don’t have internet access or an email account. As you can probably guess, the list consisted mostly of individuals who are 65 years old and above. And many were above 70 and 80 years of age.

The registration for that event was simple for us and pretty much everyone else who signed up. An easy-to-use website asked some simple questions, and then a confirmation email was sent. For those who didn’t have internet access, the DAR created an email account and printed off the confirmation for the person.

The second-dose registration didn’t go as smoothly.

The state originally said registration would open last Friday afternoon and the process would be the same as before. It was also indicated that if you received your first dose on Jan. 22, it wasn’t a guarantee you’d get your second one Friday. It was also going to be open for others to receive their first dose.

By 3:30 p.m. Feb. 5, it was announced instead of sign-ups being the same as before, those who registered for the first event by email, and who had an email account, would receive a link to sign up. Those who registered and didn’t have email would get a call from the Missouri National Guard to sign up.

It’s our understanding things ended up OK in the long run, but we can speak from experience that there were many (MANY) upset senior citizens with the way things were handled by the state the second time around. They were getting conflicting reports from different people, agencies and organizations.

Those on the local level — including the DAR — took the brunt of the complaints from those upset with the lack of a clear plan for registration.

We understand Poplar Bluff had the earliest first- and second-dose events in the state. It was a feather in our collective cap for that to happen locally.

We’re not sure the state took into consideration how senior citizens — and to be honest, anyone — would react to moving the goal posts. It would have been best for the state to have a clear plan before registration needed to begin. It also needed to be one that made giving second dose shots a priority from the beginning, since that was the promise that was made Jan. 22.

The DAR was happy to help out with the registration. That’s part of being a caring member of the community.

But not having solid answers to share with the callers over several days was an extremely disappointing and helpless feeling, and we know everyone involved feels that way.

Thank you to all of our local officials who had anything to do with both events. Your dedication and selfless acts haven’t gone unnoticed.