‘It’s The Hunger Games’: Massachusetts residents recount roadblocks trying to book COVID vaccinations, lambaste state’s rollout
Updated Feb 23, 2021;
Posted Feb 23, 2021
Gov. Charlie Baker discusses COVID-19 vaccinations at the mass vaccination site at Eastfield Mall in Springfield. (Hoang Leon Nguyen/The Republican)
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Ellen Farley’s story last Thursday was one shared by tens of thousands of people across Massachusetts: She woke up in the pre-dawn hours, set up her computer and was promptly ready by 8 a.m. to book an appointment to get vaccinated for coronavirus.
Only instead, she was met by the hair-pulling image of a four-armed octopus telling her the site had crashed, one of the many barriers she experienced Thursday morning, each out of her control.
PrepMod, company behind Massachusetts COVID appointment booking website, apologizes after hours-long crash
Updated Feb 19, 2021;
The operator behind Massachusetts’ online appointment booking system issued an apology after the website crashed Thursday morning.
“As the state’s biggest online appointment vendor, we deeply regret what happened [Thursday] in Massachusetts and are committed to ensuring this does not happen again,” Prep Mod said in a statement. “As public health servants and your partner, we are sorry for not meeting expectations. We accept full responsibility for the problem.”
Thursday morning, when nearly a million more Massachusetts residents became eligible to receive the vaccine, the Massachusetts COVID vaccine appointment website was down for more than two hours.