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> It would be worth wasting a few doses here and there if it greatly decreases the level of corruption in the system. While reasonable in isolation, I would su

> It would be worth wasting a few doses here and there if it greatly decreases the level of corruption in the system. While reasonable in isolation, I would suggest that this view doesn't account for the extreme scarcity of the vaccine, and the stretched healthcare resources. I mean, while I work 300 feet from our hospital and our vaccine stockpiles, it was quicker to travel to the neighboring county with a lower caseload. As someone who still experienced close to 4 hours standing in line in total & driving over a 100 miles, the situation is pretty dire. Ironically, NY state has been extremely boneheaded in vaccine delivery policy. They didn't allow hospital networks any leniency is how vaccines are administered, but punished them for slow rollout. In the initial two weeks or so, NY state mandated that only COVID ward staff, emergency & delivery staff should be vaccinated. We were done with them in a couple of days, but the state wouldn't allow the rest of medical staff to be vaccinated. It was a ridiculous situation - we had thousands of medical staff waiting & ready to get vaccinated, we had the resources, and we had the vaccine - but the state would not update their policy. By the time they did in mid January, we were already facing the post Christmas & New Year related travel surge in cases and didn't have staff to spare for vaccination. According to me, hospitals/counties should have been allowed to move further down the priority list as and when they had the capacity to do so, rather than requiring the governor to allow it. Instead, we had ridiculous situations like 30% utilization of stocks. > If they really wanted to they could of course come up with an efficient, low corruption system but they don’t seem terribly organized in the first place. Agreed, but what's the options available to the last mile staff, like the nurse who opened the vial, or the doctor in question?

Grustaf 6y ago
Perhaps the simplest solution would be that after they select who is to be vaccinated that day, they also select 30 or so as backup, and tell them to be ready because it _might_ be their turn so they might get a phone call that evening. Those 30 could simply be the first 30 from the next day.
- valarauko 6y ago
  True - a lot of people think a waitlist of people might be the way to go. Unfortunately, the way the system is setup right now, at least from my own experience in NY, is not like this. The appointment itself is treated as sacrosanct, and the time on it is meaningless - it only gets you through the door on that day. You can show up at any time. I think the vaccination starts at 7 AM. Considering how far in advance the appointments are given (months at this point) and how inconveniently many centers are located, it's a tough call for most people. It probably would be better to have a separate wait list of opportunistic recipients, who say they can show up at an hour's notice at the end of any day. To prevent abuse, the people vaccinated through this waitlist can't exceed 10-20/day. Honestly, let these people be the family members of the healthcare workers at these sites. I have absolutely no qualms with the household of hospital workers get preferential treatment with the vaccine - they're at elevated risk as it is.

Grustaf 6y ago

Perhaps the simplest solution would be that after they select who is to be vaccinated that day, they also select 30 or so as backup, and tell them to be ready because it _might_ be their turn so they might get a phone call that evening. Those 30 could simply be the first 30 from the next day.

valarauko 6y ago
True - a lot of people think a waitlist of people might be the way to go. Unfortunately, the way the system is setup right now, at least from my own experience in NY, is not like this. The appointment itself is treated as sacrosanct, and the time on it is meaningless - it only gets you through the door on that day. You can show up at any time. I think the vaccination starts at 7 AM. Considering how far in advance the appointments are given (months at this point) and how inconveniently many centers are located, it's a tough call for most people. It probably would be better to have a separate wait list of opportunistic recipients, who say they can show up at an hour's notice at the end of any day. To prevent abuse, the people vaccinated through this waitlist can't exceed 10-20/day. Honestly, let these people be the family members of the healthcare workers at these sites. I have absolutely no qualms with the household of hospital workers get preferential treatment with the vaccine - they're at elevated risk as it is.