PALM BEACH COUNTY, Fla. — Stephanie Donner spends time each day doing what a lot of other seniors are doing.
“You can’t get an appointment, you can’t get a phone call to go through,” she said. “I’m angry, like all of the other seniors, it’s frustrating, they should have prepared.”
Some help might be on the way for the 74-year-old Boca Raton resident and other seniors anxious to receive the COVID-19 vaccine.
State Representative Emily Slosberg shared a letter with Contact 5 moments before she sent it to Governor Ron DeSantis.
“A lot of these constituents don’t even know where to start to get a vaccine. It’s unacceptable,” she said.
The south Palm Beach County Democrat is asking for enough vaccines to inoculate the 73,000 residents over the age of 65 in her district.
She also wants better coordination for senior communities and an operational website for online appointment scheduling for COVID vaccines.
“My constituents, they’re angry, upset, they don’t even know where to start to try to find out how they can possibly get this vaccine,” Rep. Slosberg said.
According to the state’s own vaccine data, six other Florida counties have inoculated more people than Palm Beach County as Monday.
“Other counties have doubled or tripled us right now, we’re so far behind,” Rep. Slosberg said.
Contact 5 also discovered that the phone number for the appointment line in Palm Beach County has been taken off the Florida Department of Health in Palm Beach County’s website and replaced with an email address.
A message posted on the site says the appointment line is “currently full and closed for COVID-19 vaccine requests” as they work to “transition to a new website-based appointment system.”
According to the website, appointments should only be requested by sending an email to chd50feedback@flhealth.gov.