NOTE: This story was updated April 1 at 9:13 a.m. with a response from Fraser Health.
Michael Webster got his first COVID-19 vaccine shot on Monday.
He’s happy about that – but the process it took to get there has left him wondering why the wheels of the vaccination machine seem to be grinding so slowly.
“The variants thrive on delay,” he said. “Let’s get more people into more places to get vaccinated.”
The New Westminster resident, who’s 75, was happy when he heard there was a vaccination clinic at Douglas College, just a few blocks from his home. And he was happier still when his age group became eligible to book appointments last week. But then he started calling the central Fraser Health vaccine booking line and just couldn’t get through.
Once he finally did – later one evening, when it seemed to be less busy – he gave all his information to the person taking the bookings and asked for an appointment in New Westminster.
There weren’t any. And when he tried asking for more details (When would the next appointment be available? What were the clinics’ hours of operation? How many slots would be available next week?), he simply couldn’t get them.
All he could find out was that there were no appointments available.
“They presented this as a national emergency. They asked us to stay home until vaccines were available. Now vaccines are available, and it’s ‘Sorry, sir, we don’t have an appointment for you today,’” Webster said. “These sorts of delays, it just gives more space for the variants to operate.”
‘FINAGLING’ REQUIRED
Webster didn’t want to take one of the open slots in Coquitlam or Surrey or Burnaby; he wanted to be able to walk to the clinic closest to his home.
So he decided he’d walk over to Douglas College to see if he could find out more. At the clinic, Webster said, he was told that occasionally there were doses available at the end of the day if anyone failed to show up for their scheduled appointment, so clinic staff took his information and agreed to call him later in the day if anything was available.
He agreed. But, after he left, he started thinking about it and decided he didn’t want to take his chances on waiting for a phone call. So, instead, he walked back over to the clinic at lunchtime and sat himself down to wait.
While he was sitting there, he said, he did try to keep calling the booking line, deciding that if he got an appointment, he would leave. But in the four hours he sat there, he called numerous times and was never able to get through to anybody.
Finally, at about 4:45 p.m., it turned out there was one dose left over – and Webster got it.
“I guess I had to do a little bit of personal finagling to do it,” Webster said. “I would have preferred to just be able to get an appointment.”
Webster questions why Fraser Health is announcing that the vaccine is available for folks aged 73 and up when people older than that still haven’t been able to get in for their shots.
“It seems to me to be a little disingenuous,” he said. “It might give a false impression that all 75s are now being done, so we can call in the 73s.”
He also questioned why the vaccine rollout hadn’t included pharmacies, as is done with flu shots.
PHARMACIES NOW PART OF ROLLOUT
Just hours after that conversation, the B.C. Ministry of Health announced a new partnership between Immunize BC and community-based pharmacists to make the AstraZeneca vaccine available to people aged 55 to 65 living in the Lower Mainland through their local pharmacies – ahead of B.C.’s age-based schedule and outside of mass vaccination clinics.
The AstraZeneca vaccine is the first of the vaccines to be fridge-stable and thus able to be used in many locations without specialized storage (unlike the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines, which need specific cold storage). B.C.’s AstraZeneca supply was originally slated to be used for B.C.’s parallel vaccine rollout track for priority front-line workers. But, on March 29, the National Advisory Council on Immunization recommended a pause in the use of the vaccine in people under age 55 because of blood clots seen in a small number of European cases.
A Ministry of Health press release noted that gives the province an opportunity to use the AstraZeneca doses to help combat high case numbers in the Fraser and Vancouver Coastal health regions.
As a result, people born in the decade from 1956 to 1966 can now book appointments directly with local pharmacies.
That system, however, was also meeting some snags out of the gate on Wednesday. For New Westminster residents, the Fraser Health vaccine information site listed just one participating pharmacy, the downtown Shoppers Drug Mart on Columbia Street. That location, however, was wrong; it’s the uptown Shoppers (at Royal City Centre mall) that’s taking part in the AstraZeneca program. As of this morning, the pharmacy was still waiting for its supply to arrive and did not know how many doses it would be receiving, so it was unclear when people would be able to start getting the shots locally.
Demand for the vaccine is reportedly high; London Drugs, for one, has already requested that people not call local pharmacies for appointments at this moment, since all available appointments are spoken for.
NEW BOOKING SYSTEM
The Record put in a call and email to Fraser Health with a number of questions regarding availability of vaccine appointments in New Westminster, how far ahead appointments are being booked and general advice for those who are being stymied by the current booking system.
Fraser Health responded with an email statement late Wednesday afternoon:
"Across the Fraser Health region, we can accommodate thousands of immunizations each day. The vast majority of our available appointments are filled, with all appointments booked on many days. This is indicative of the enthusiasm we are seeing from people in our communities who are eligible to receive their COVID-19 vaccine.
"The number of available appointments varies from clinic to clinic. Appointments are available at immunization clinics across our region, including same-day appointments at some locations. We encourage people who are eligible to book the earliest appointment available, including those that are available in neighbouring communities.
"Fraser Health is monitoring the volumes at our sites across our region and will flex clinics up or down as needed to meet our communities’ needs.
"As we announced last week, planning is underway to open an additional immunization clinic in New Westminster at the Anvil Centre. We will have more to share regarding our opening timeline soon."
Fraser Health also announced Tuesday that it’s transitioning its booking system to a new provincial online system that will launch on April 6.
“To date we have booked just over 222,070 immunization appointments, and we acknowledge that people in our communities want to book appointments as quickly as they become eligible,” a Fraser Health press release said Tuesday. “We appreciate everyone’s patience as we schedule very sizable populations into immunization appointments. We understand this transition coupled with high volumes has caused some challenges with people accessing the system.”
Another local mass vaccination clinic is also set to open at the Anvil Centre, in downtown New West, starting April 7, which should open up more appointments for local residents.
Webster, for one, hopes the vaccine rollout will pick up steam so younger British Columbians can get their turn in line sooner rather than later.
“If this is a so-called war against the virus, let’s put a full-court press on it,” he said.
HOW TO BOOK YOUR APPOINTMENT
Fraser Health centralized booking:
Use this centralized booking information if you are eligible under the ongoing age-based rollout (born in 1948 or earlier), if you are Indigenous and born in 2003 or earlier, or if you are part of the group designated “clinically extremely vulnerable” and in possession of your invitation letter signed by Dr. Bonnie Henry.
Daytime (7 a.m. to 7 p.m.): Call the immunization booking phone line at 1-855-755-2455.
The phone line will operate from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Friday, April 2 and Monday, April 5.
Nighttime (7 p.m. to 7 a.m.): Access Fraser Health’s self-serve online booking tool.
The online tool will operate from 5 p.m. to 9 a.m. on Friday, April 2 and Monday, April 5. On Saturday, April 3 and Sunday, April 4, it will run from 7 p.m. to 7 a.m.
The above advice is in effect until the new booking system launches April 6. (Watch the Fraser Health website for any evolving changes.)
Contact participating pharmacies directly:
If you were born in the decade from 1956 to 1966, you are eligible for the just-announced rollout of AstraZeneca vaccine that’s being made available through participating local pharmacies.
Rollout just started today, and not all participating locations have yet received vaccine.
The full list of participating pharmacies is available at the Fraser Health website, and you should contact the pharmacy directly to set up an appointment.
(Note that the participating New Westminster pharmacy is in fact the Royal City Centre location of Shoppers Drug Mart, not the downtown site originally listed.)
Follow Julie MacLellan on Twitter @juliemaclellan.
Email Julie, jmaclellan@newwestrecord.ca.
