New York City's monkeypox vaccine rollout continues to be marred by problems, as the online appointment scheduler appeared to go down Tuesday -- immediately after the city announced limited slots were available for those looking to be vaccinated.
The city's Health Department announced at 1 p.m. via Twitter that a limited amount of monkeypox vaccine appointments were available at clinics in Central Harlem, Chelsea and Corona. But when those looking to book an appointment clicked on the link the city provided, they got an error message. High traffic apparently shut it all down.
Once the public was made aware of the glitch, the city's post was flooded with incredulous, frustrated and angered individuals. A lucky few managed to get the much-sought-after appointments, but many more were once again shut out.
"Already crashed...wow," one tweet read. "This is embarrassing."
"Get it together!!!" another Twitter user wrote.
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"The site has already crashed. This is pathetic dangerous," yet another tweet read.
Meanwhile, another Twitter user alluded to the COVID-19 pandemic and the problems that city encountered when it also tried to rollout the coronavirus vaccine in its early stages.
"The online sign up is as bad as...it's like they never learned anything from the pandemic," the user said.
In a subsequent tweet, the city's Health Department said: "Due to high level of traffic, the scheduling site is currently down. We are aware of this issue and working to restore it quickly."
Hours after the site was still down, the health department put out a statement saying that "all available monkeypox vaccine appointment slots have been booked," and attempted to explain what happened to the website.
"Due to overwhelming traffic, as soon as appointments went online this afternoon, the site delivered error messages for many people who were unable to make appointments. This is just further proof that demand is very high, and we will continue working to make vaccine available. We will advise New Yorkers when more appointments can be made," the statement read. "We apologize for the frustration caused and are working to build stable appointment infrastructure as we roll out more appointments as vaccine supply increases in the coming weeks. We look forward to receiving more doses in the near future to provide to New Yorkers."
The latest hiccup is one in a string of problems the city has experienced since they started to rollout the monkeypox vaccine.
On Monday, New York City health officials said they planned to open additional appointment slots for the monkeypox vaccine Tuesday afternoon as the city navigates distribution of a frustratingly small supply of doses and cases double in the span of one week.
Getting hands on a vaccine as the outbreak worsens and New York City accounts for a sizeable fraction of the country's cases has been difficult -- only a few thousand appointments have opened in the past few weeks. That comes as the city now has 267 cases, a 20 percent increase from Monday and a 141 percent increase from a week prior.
"We truly wish we had more," said New York Gov. Kathy Hochul, as she pushed for more help from the federal government.
There will be 5,100 doses soon heading to the state, and 14,000 more to NYC. But Hochul cautions it's still not enough.
"What I’ve conveyed to the White House is that we’ve received about 14 percent of doses allocated nationwide, but we have more than 14 percent of the nations cases," she said.
An "unfortunate glitch" made opened last week's appointments prematurely, prompting a flood of confusion and a flurry of apologies from city health officials as they worked to correct the problem.
All of the 2,500 appointments inadvertently released last Wednesday were scooped up extremely quickly, within 10 minutes.
While monkeypox is contagious and typically confined to the African continent, health officials say the risk to the general U.S. public is low. They say this isn't COVID all over again because vaccines already exist to treat orthopoxvirus, the family of viruses to which monkeypox and diseases like smallpox and chickenpox belong.
But ensuring a steady supply of the FDA-approved monkeypox vaccine is a problem. And it's causing other headaches, too.
But how does the monkeypox vaccine even work? It's a two-dose vaccination process like many others, though the vaccine supply issue may mean some New Yorkers have to wait an extra week or two to get their next layers of protection against monkeypox.
Meanwhile, officials are scrambling to establish a widely accessible treatment network for a disease that usually doesn't hit the United States -- ever.
One vaccine clinic has already been opened at the Chelsea Sexual Health Clinic on Ninth Avenue in Manhattan, though no appointments have been available. That location, along with another at the Central Harlem Sexual Health Clinic (2238 Fifth Avenue in Manhattan), was open on Thursday for appointments only. A third site, located at the Corona Sexual Health Clinic, is expected to open later this month.
At this point, eligibility in New York City is limited to "gay, bisexual or other men who have sex with men and transgender, gender non-conforming or gender non-binary persons ages 18 and older who have had multiple or anonymous sex partners in the last 14 days," under the guidelines released by the health department. Learn more here.
On Long Island, Suffolk County opened an online monkeypox portal for vaccination appointments Monday. In less than two hours, all 750 available appointment slots had been filled, with all the doses to be given out at two locations on Fire Island later in the week.
There have been four confirmed cases in Suffolk County, and one in Nassau County, which has been given 400 doses to dole out. Officials at Northwell Health — which is overseeing much of the vaccine distribution on Long Island — are hopeful more doses and testing will soon be made available.
What Is Monkeypox?
Monkeypox was first discovered in 1958, when outbreaks occurred in colonies of monkeys kept for research -- resulting in its name. (What you need to know about monkeypox.)
The first case in a human was reported in 1970 in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, which still has the majority of infections. Other African countries where it has been found: Cameroon, Central African Republic, Cote d’Ivoire, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Gabon, Liberia, Nigeria, Republic of the Congo and Sierra Leone.
Human symptoms of monkeypox are similar to but milder than the symptoms of smallpox, the CDC says. It presents itself as a flu-like illness accompanied by lymph-node swelling and rash on the face and body.
Monkeypox starts off with fever, headache, muscle aches, and exhaustion. Monkeypox also causes lymph nodes to swell, something that smallpox does not. The incubation period is usually 7−14 days but can range from 5−21 days.
The CDC is urging healthcare providers in the U.S. to be alert for patients who have rashes consistent with monkeypox, regardless of whether they have traveled or have specific risks for monkeypox. See more information from the travel notice here.
