Manatee’s new vaccine distribution system will make the problem worse | Letter to the editor

I watched the public meeting on Wednesday about the vaccine distribution in Manatee County. They just made the problem worse!

There are 100,000 residents in Manatee County over the age of 65, Add the snowbirds who own property and pay taxes in Manatee County would make it about 130,000. The 130,000 taxpayers minus the ones who are in assisted living, nursing homes or don’t use a computer, along with the snowbirds who did not come to Florida this season, would decrease the number certainly below 100,000.

Yet they said the server was hit with over 300,000 hits which crashed the system. So ask yourself why are there 300,000 plus hits which crashed the system?

People are going anywhere to get the life saving vaccine. These folks are going county by county looking for any opportunity to save their lives. So our county says let’s setup a lottery to relieve the IT problem. Welcome to 500,000 or 1 million people signing up in Manatee County.

The question came up at the public meeting why we could not restrict the signu-p to Manatee Countytax paying residents. The answer was the governor’s order is all people over 65 will be vaccinated. Did the governor’s order say you could not prioritize folks over 65?

I believe Manatee County took the easy way out to solve their problem, not ours.

Bill Watts

Bradenton