Problems Persist, Glitch Causing Canceled COVID Vaccine Appointments In New Jersey
NEW JERSEY (CBSNewYork) -- Problems persist for people trying to make COVID vaccine appointments in New Jersey.
Some who booked through the state's hotline say their appointments were abruptly canceled, CBS2's Meg Baker reported Friday.
Baker walked to the New Bridge Medical Center vaccination site in Paramus, New Jersey with Valerie Murray-Taitel, who was told she had an appointment there by an agent on the state's hotline.
"Unfortunately, the day before our appointment was scheduled, we get an email, with no explanation as to why, that the appointment had been canceled," Murray-Taitel said.
It happened after hours of circling websites for an appointment and finally getting through to an agent on the state's hotline.
"We don't know if we have been canceled because of an IT glitch, because there's not enough vaccine or perhaps this is just terribly mismanaged," she said.
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Murray-Taitel showed up anyway with her husband for the appointments. After some confusion inside, she got lucky.
"So it's official. We were told that the confirmation letter we had was invalid, even though it was from the New Jersey Department of Health," Murray-Taitel said. "We were reregistered once we got there."
Murray-Taitel and her husband were vaccinated.
Baker asked Gov. Phil Murphy and the health commissioner about the ordeal.
"What caused this? There's a lot of confusion out there. Will they automatically be rescheduled or will they have to go through the booking process all over again?" asked Baker.
"We've had very significant vendor issues," said Murphy.
"Most of them are rectified the same day people were told to show up," said Judy Persichilli, the state's health commissioner. "If they were not, they will get a phone call or another message."
"On the other hand, we have had some glitches with the scheduling system that people are working 24/7 along with Microsoft to work them through," Persichilli said.
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"Should people show up anyway?" Baker asked.
"Could you get lucky and get the [vaccine]? Yes, you could. But there's probably a bigger chance you won't," Murphy said.
"I don't doubt that there are people who got the cancelation email and didn't show up," said Murray-Taitel, who added she was directed to a website to reschedule the canceled appointments, but nothing was available.
She's happy she made the decision to show up anyway.
CBS2's Meg Baker contributed to this report.