PORTLAND, Ore. — With the daily push to expand vaccinations for Oregonians, there are both signs of hope and frustration.
Lets begin with the hope.
A chart from the Oregon Health Authority shows Johnson & Johnson's single-shot vaccine will skip Oregon this week and next but then pour into the state at a rate of 80,000 doses a week beginning March 22. That will take the state's weekly allotment above 209,000 doses.
Oregon Health Authority (OHA) director Patrick Allen said it could significantly speed up timelines.
“Based on current federal forecast of vaccine received, we should actually be at a place at April 21 where we would have received enough vaccine to hit 70% of the adult population," Allen said, "and by, as the president said yesterday, the end of May, 100% of the adult population."
Currently, anyone 45 and older in Oregon will be eligible for the COVID vaccine June 1. That may change.
“This will likely allow us to accelerate the timelines for different categories that we talked about with the governor in the press conference last week," Allen said. "But candidly, I would like to get a little bit further through the senior population before I start talking about any other populations."
In the meantime, the frustration comes with a new link being sent to seniors who are picked at random for the Oregon Convention Center vaccine clinic.
Some, like Kim Floistad, signed up to be notified, but in the meantime she found a shot on her own. Now, she wants to cancel the timeslot being held for her, but she cannot figure out how to do it.
“It says right on the invitation that it will be held for me until about 2:15 this coming Saturday," Floistad said. "And it’s like - I don't need it now, and its tied up. I mean all that time for somebody, for as short supply as it is and as desperate as people are to get it, that's insane!" she said.
Petty Stuckey ran into a similar issue.
"I’d like to be able to cancel it so someone else could have the slot,” she said.
She got her husband an appointment at the convention center, then found him a shot at her nearby pharmacy even sooner. And then she got an invitation email to use a personalized link to make an appointment for a COVID shot at the convention center.
A Legacy Health spokesman said the personalized invitation is made by a medical record company just for vaccination efforts in Portland and three other locations.
He said at this time, there is no way to cancel the invitation. Seniors now getting the message will get two emails and then no more if they do not respond. After five days, the invitation will be sent to someone else. The spokesman said vaccine will not be wasted because people are not able to cancel.
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