Crush The Curve Idaho is checking vaccine appointments daily, dropping tips on Twitter
Local health departments and Idaho’s health care providers are scrambling to help people access the COVID-19 vaccine. More than 500,000 Idahoans have been made eligible to get immunized against the coronavirus — of those, more than 227,000 have received at least one dose so far, according to U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data. More than 97,000 Idahoans are fully vaccinated, the data show.
And while more doses have been arriving in the state than were a month ago, the demand for coveted shots of the Pfizer and Moderna vaccine remains far higher than the supply. That has frustrated Idahoans — especially the largest eligible group, people age 65 and older.
Crush The Curve Idaho earlier this month launched a new tool for Idahoans looking for the vaccine: vaccinatethe208.com. The nonprofit has its own staff calling around the state and checking for openings on an almost daily basis.
It also occasionally shares on its Twitter account — twitter.com/CrushTheCurveID — when there’s an opportunity for many people to get vaccinated, such as mass vaccination clinics or same-day openings at a local grocery store.
Crush The Curve Idaho is a nonprofit that launched last year to offer more COVID-19 testing in the community and to employers.
The Idaho Department of Health and Welfare also has a website — healthandwelfare.idaho.gov/covid-19-vaccination — that includes coronavirus vaccine details, including which Idahoans are eligible now and the projections for people who aren’t yet eligible. It also includes phone numbers and website addresses for the seven local public health districts.
Those health districts’ vaccine hotlines and health care providers’ own phone lines can be tied up with callers eager to get scheduled. Their websites, such as Southeastern Idaho Public Health’s vaccination page — siphidaho.org/covid19-vaccine-clinics.php — may include detailed information. But others might stick to a more basic list of vaccine locations. They also may not include every provider, such as the Boise VA Medical Center, if the vaccines aren’t distributed through the local health districts.
Idaho was planning to use an online tool called PrepMod to help Idahoans find vaccine appointments. But it decided the website would be redundant with what the local health districts were doing, Health and Welfare Director Dave Jeppesen said.
But faced with questions and frustrations from older Idahoans, the state is now working on a solution, Jeppesen said in a recent blog post.
“Under Gov. Brad Little’s direction, (Health and Welfare) teams are working on a vaccine pre-registration solution,” the blog post said. “It will save you time and worry. When it is available, we will let you know through all available channels. Your ability to get a vaccine — should you choose to do so — is our top priority.”
Want more information about the coronavirus in Idaho? The state’s landing page is coronavirus.idaho.gov and includes links to vaccine and case dashboards, as well as guidance and other resources.
