Emergency services governor’s office officials announced Wednesday that immediate appointments were available for vaccines at the federally operated site in Cal State LA, regardless of their eligibility.
But at 9 a.m. Thursday, everything changed and people turned away.
The OES told Eyewitness News that appointments for eligible people were filling up overnight. This meant that those who did not have an appointment, aged 18 to 50, could not receive a vaccine as previously thought. This is a problem that the site had not encountered all week.
Many of those who headed to the site with a sense of relief that they could get their shot quickly were frustrated.
“We’ve been waiting in line for about an hour … a little longer, a lot of people have been,” said Dan Marcus of Studio City. “(They told us) it was okay to get in here. We got to the front of the line and now they tell us we have to make appointments and we’re not eligible for the shot.”
The situation on Thursday is a stark contrast since Wednesday, when people came in without a hitch.
“Oh, the process was fantastic, my God, it was so fast,” Anthony Marquez said. “I got in line at 4:44 pm and was on my way home at 5:22 pm”
Officials say they will prioritize appointments made through the state’s website, My Turn.
Before those appointments were filled quickly, the Los Angeles County public health director said it was likely the result of scheduling problems, not a sign of declining demand.
Barbara Ferrer also said that while there is a sudden availability of appointments, it does not mean the county should immediately extend eligibility to all over-16s, which is scheduled to take place on April 15. .
“There are 5.5 million people in (currently) eligible groups and not all have received their first dose,” Ferrer said. “… We only opened for people 50 or older a few days ago, so we’re going to continue to make sure there’s good access.”
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The county Department of Public Health even announced online the availability of vaccination appointments for Thursday at its county-operated vaccination sites, particularly at the large-scale Six Flags Magic Mountain site.
But Ferrer noted that appointment time slots tend to open in a waveform, as sites cannot list available appointments until they are assured of dose delivery.
“One of the dilemmas here is that we’re still struggling to be able to release appointments early, and many of us can still only release appointments a couple of days before when … people can go and get vaccinated,” he said. “We’re really trying to work hard to get a smoother forecast.”
Often, when people connect to the Internet and find a lot of space available, “it’s because someone has just opened numerous appointments,” Ferrer said.
He said health officials monitor activity at the various vaccination sites and, if appointments are not met, capacity is increased in other places with more demand. He said the county “is studying what could explain why in some places we have more availability this week,” but said vaccine doses will not be made useless. He noted that the county generally administers about 95% of the doses it receives within seven days.
“The goal here is always, and we’ve been very good at it … (getting) vaccinated in people’s arms in a seven day period and we never carry a vaccine one week to the next,” he said. “And we’ve always met that goal.”
He said he did not anticipate an reversal of this trend this week, despite a sharp rise in the availability of appointments.
“Until we start seeing a problem this week with making appointments for the rest of the week, I would say we’re on a good track record to make sure those doses are actually administered,” he said.
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