COVID-19

Collin County leaders hold tense emergency meeting after hundreds turned away for vaccinations in Plano

Published

5 years ago

May 26, 2020

Editor

PLANO, TX – Collin County commissioners demanded answers in an emergency meeting called mid-Friday, after hundreds of residents were turned away for their coronavirus vaccination appointments at John Clark Stadium in Plano on Thursday.

Curative, a third-party vaccination distribution contractor, is in charge of getting shots into arms at that site.

Vice President of Marketing Miranda Gottlieb represented the company in the meeting as commissioners hurled pointed questions her way.

Many municipalities and governments have hired Curative to handle the rollout of vaccines.

Several news articles connect the company to distribution efforts in San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Massachusetts, to name a few.

But on Thursday, it dropped the ball at John Clark Stadium. Approximately 750 people who waited for hours to get their vaccinations were turned away toward the end of the day because the company overbooked appointments.

It started the day with 1,075 vaccines and ended the day early with 963 distributed, per the meeting.

Gottlieb explained that the company overestimated how many people would cancel their appointments this week.

She went on to say that the company has a method and or algorithm that concludes how many appointments to book each day by predicting how many patients might cancel their appointments.

It’s not a careless way to go about business, and Curative explained in the meeting that they do calculations like this so they can vaccinate as many people as possible.

But Gottlieb said that Curative’s software clearly needed to be retooled and that the company would be updating calculative methods by Saturday.

On Friday, there didn’t appear to be any major issues at the site.

Gottlieb also said there was a miscommunication between Curative and the county regarding how it would handle vaccinations when the site was not at capacity.

She told commissioners that the company’s misunderstood impression under the county was to vaccinate people at will if cancellations were made.

Ergo, if a cancellation was made and someone arrived days early for their appointment or showed up after missing an appointment by mistake–they may benefit from someone’s cancelation by getting in line.

Gottlieb admitted that the company had given shots to people this week who didn’t have an appointment the day they were vaccinated.

That likely added to the miscalculation for Thursday, and or the week she added.

“That’s where some of the wires got crossed,” Gottlieb said. “We are now only servicing and offering vaccinations to folks who arrive at the designated time and date for their appointment.”

Judge Chris Hill seemed frustrated the entire time Gottlieb spoke.

“Moving forward, I don’t want you to do a better job of telling us when you shut the line down and dismiss people,” Hill said. “I want those decisions to be made by my team.”

Those who missed their vaccinations Thursday will now be vaccinated Monday.

That includes Diane Reeve, who was turned away.

“When I got up there, they waved me away and told me they were done,” Reeve said. “It was frustrating for sure.”

Reeve is an 8th-degree black belt, martial arts instructor and has HIV.

She needs her shot and is hoping the county doesn’t drop the ball again next week.

“I’m trying to figure out if it’s really going to happen or not the second time around, but we’ll see,” she said.

“I’m not so sure I want to play by the rules, I’ll probably show up early,” she said with a laugh.

Commissioners also discussed with Curative about increasing doses and finding a second site in addition to John Clark Stadium to distribute shots.

MDMH Plano

Collin County leaders hold tense emergency meeting after hundreds turned away for vaccinations in Plano

COVID-19

Collin County leaders hold tense emergency meeting after hundreds turned away for vaccinations in Plano

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