Another tale of vaccination woes from the Worst Website Evah!

File under "sad but true." Here’s my latest attempt to book a vaccine online from the Worst Government Website Evah!

6:30 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 24: I prepare myself to log on after midnight by making copies of my Medicare and supplemental health insurance cards. I place them to the left of the computer and put a magnifying glass near it so I can more easily read the small ID numbers.
12:01 a.m. Thursday, Feb. 25: I log on to the Mass. vaccine website only to be told that the website link, which I had used for the previous week didn’t exist.
12:02 to 12:30 a.m. I refresh the website numerous times only to be told that the website isn’t up. I try to take the optimistic view that the geniuses behind this magnificent site don’t have it up yet, so I, in good faith, go to bed.
Until 6:45 a.m. – I should have been up all night trying, because obviously the only people who have been able to book appointments are people who never sleep, or beings who don’t need any sleep.
6:45 a.m. – I get on the website looking to book an appointment at Gillette Stadium, but only the dates of Feb. 25-28 come up.
6:48 through 7:15 a.m. – Repeat exercise in futility. I do get into the “waiting room” telling me I have waits of 1 to 10 minutes several times, in between trying to book what proved to be phantom appointments (see below).
7:15-7:30 a.m. --- I’m amazed when I find the site listing appointments on Feb. 26 and Feb. 28 only to go into it and then find that, even though the message said “two appointments” one day and “one” the next day, when the appointment finder opened, voila – there were dozens of time slots --- and all were taken.
7:30 to 8 a.m. – Once again, repeat the new senior Massachusetts resident exercise in futility. Do so numerous times; am in fine shape this morning – even before heading out the door to jog.
Shortly after 8 a.m. – I’m again “amazed” (actually fooled by the Mass. bureaucratic geniuses who created this “fabulous” website) that there are actually “54 appointments” listed under March 2. So, I breathlessly open up that date, expecting to find open slots --- only to find that right after each time slot has these words: “No appointments available.”  Is this some kind of a joke, I wonder? Or just another fine example of Massachusetts’ wonderful new oxymoron coined by this experience: “efficient ineptness.” Whatever it is, it’s a cruel joke.
8 to 8:15 a.m. ---  I must be a dope because I try again and this time find “39 appointments” listed under March 2, but after clicking on that date with the naïve goal of booking an appointment, once more, I come to find that the bureaucrats have lured another naïve senior citizen into their trap – as there are NO actual appointments.
At about the same time --- I search for an appointment at the Seekonk CVS and see that the site is full. (At least it tells me that upfront!)
8:20 a.m. – After this experience, I suffer the ultimate indignity and when I refresh the site, I am put in the virtual waiting room – first for 440 minutes (that’s 7 hours!!!!!!!) and then for 394 minutes (6 ½ hours). Obviously, I get out and sign off and shut down the computer.
10:50 a.m. --- After a rejuvenating jog-walk for 80-plus minutes, I get back on and find all of the Gillette Stadium appointments are booked through Friday, March 5 – probably with Zombies and others who never sleep --- or maybe they’re not really appointments. Who knows at this point?
11 a.m. --- After reading that CVS is offering vaccinations at more locations, I search and am told that “NO CLINICS AVAILABLE.”
Epilogue --- This is not, as a letter-writer to The Sun Chronicle noted, a senior citizen problem. I know how to navigate websites. This is a VERY BROKEN SYSTEM.
Governor, you and your empty corporate suits should be ashamed. Just release your doses to the local boards of health, so they can get the job done – as they’ve done so many times in the past!