Vaccine rollout in Ontario has been an absolute embarrassment. Despite having a year to organize, the province did nothing. We launched our vaccine registration website well near the end of March, and it's not a central system.
Some public health units have signed up to the provincial system. Some went their own way, as the ON government spent a year providing no guidance. So you have to know what your local health unit is doing. However, some vaccines are also going out via pharmacies. None of these are registering centrally. So each major pharmacy chain or grocery store with built in pharmacy units has their own website. Which means people are booking competing appointments to get the best time.
Some vaccines are going to independent pharmacies that can't afford a website for management, since there's no central system. And the province is sending roaming units to areas and doing daily random clinic announcements. It's not quite enough to make the corpse of Ayn Rand smile, but it's functionally a non regulated hellscape.
To make it worse, the eligibility statuses keep fluctuating. Today, it looks like this:
People over 55 are eligible for Pfizer/Moderna through the provincial/public health programs.
People over 40 are eligible for AstraZeneca through the dystopian pharmacy programs.
Essential workers in a certain list of postal codes are eligible. Some of these make sense and are areas with lots of spread. Some just happen to be suburban areas that house cabinet ministers.
Anyone who is pregnant can register for any program.
The most useful tool to a vaccine hunter is a Twitter account that is doing the government's job of aggregating public knowledge on vaccine availability and broadcasting it.
It's insane. There should be one site. Register your name, your health card number, your date of birth, do you have a list of conditions, are you an essential worker, and then it messages you when there's an appointment in your eligibility and area. But, Doug Ford is a Conservative moron, and he has done nothing to help this province. In fact, it's fairly arguable that Ontario's recent rapid increase in cases is entirely his fault, as he has resisted scientific calls for action in favour of keeping businesses open unnecessarily.
The hospitals in Ottawa are full, as are the ones in Toronto and other major urban areas. Medium risk patients are being air lifted to hospitals in Northern Ontario. Newfoundland and Labrador is sending nurses and doctors to help in Ontario emergency rooms & COVID units. All non-emergency procedures have now been cancelled.
And all of this because of Doug Ford being unable to listen to the scientists. I'm so angry and frustrated right now. At least my parents have their first vaccinations, but...yeah. Yeah.
