Shelby County now has an official waitlist to call upon in an effort to keep extra vaccine doses from going to waste. People can sign up through a new online system called "VaxQueue."
As is the case across the country, locally more people want a vaccine than is currently available. But sometimes there are additional doses on hand at the end of the day because of missed appointments or an unexpected allotment from the state.
Until now, notifying the public of these situations has been confusing and uneven, but officials say the new strategy is designed to be more fair and transparent.
“We wanted to just create VaxQueue as a way to, one, ensure that people receive the most accurate available information. And, two, make sure that everybody had an opportunity to receive that information regardless of who you know and who you don’t know,” says Danielle Inez, the chief of staff for the Shelby County Mayor’s office.
VaxQueue asks for your age, occupation, underlying health conditions, zip code and how quickly you’d be able to get to a vaccine location.
Officials can use these filters to find the most appropriate people to contact, based on priority groups.
If there’s a time crunch, the health department will turn to those who have indicated that they can get somewhere within an hour, Inez says.
Notifications will come via text and email, but those without Internet access can also contact the health department’s hotline (901-222-SHOT) to add their name to the queue and receive a landline call.
Inez encourages everyone to sign up, even those in the state’s lowest priority groups and not likely to be vaccinated for months. She says the new system also sends notifications alerting people when it’s their turn to make an appointment.