Are any new coronavirus variants in Idaho?

"I liked the other way because you kind of got to pick," she said Wednesday, after Eastern Idaho Public Health moved to a lottery to schedule seniors' vaccine appointments. Marler, who spends her days behind a screen crunching numbers, acknowledged it wasn't right for everyone.

In the old, first-come, first-serve system, Marler said, "you just got to be quick on a keyboard, and not everybody is." On the other hand, the lottery, she said, "makes it a more level playing field."

Seniors, doctors and health officials seem to be embracing Eastern Idaho Public Health's new lottery-style system in which the health district will take names from a list and pull them out of a proverbial hat to decide who gets shots when. They say approaching initial vaccine access through luck of the draw, rather than whoever gets through overwhelmed phone lines and web forms first, can ensure seniors with different levels of technological know-how get an equal chance.

"I think seniors are just frustrated to keep calling and get a (busy) signal. That's not a system," said Dr. Kenneth Krell, intensive care unit director at Eastern Idaho Regional Medical Center. A lottery "might be a better system. … Who knows? We’ve never been through this before and had to deal with this," he said.

Dr. Martha Buitrago, a local infectious disease doctor, said it's promising that the health district changed its signup system so quickly.

"The fact that they did one thing and it didn't work out, and they switched, it means they're trying to" do the right thing, Buitrago said. "That's how we should do new things in unprecedented times."

What happened Saturday was "chaos" amid a "mad rush" to schedule vaccine appointments for seniors, health district Director Geri Rackow told reporters Wednesday morning. She apologized for the distress it left seniors who had trouble finishing the online form quickly.

Some seniors kept calling the health district throughout the day, hoping to get through, only to hear busy signals on the line before they learned all 2,000 shot appointments for the next two weeks filled up within 20 minutes of becoming available.

The process created confusion among people signing up online when appointments quickly disappeared. Rackow apologized for the rush that “quickly overwhelmed” the health district’s online appointment signup system.

Lucy Lemmon, 83, was calling all day. When the health district moved to a lottery system, she learned Wednesday that she was on the list. But she doesn't care about "this system." She just wants officials to "get it set up and let us old people and young people get (the vaccine) and get over with (it). ... I think it's awful we have to be up in the air about it all the time."

As the state prepared for roughly 265,000 Idahoans age 65 and up to begin accessing the vaccine starting Monday, they urged seniors to stay patient. The state's very limited doses — with just 25,000 first doses coming each week — means that it will likely take at least two months before every senior can get a shot. But, officials assure that everyone who wants a COVID-19 vaccine will get one.

The lottery system in place at Eastern Idaho Public Health doesn't extend to all places that are giving out vaccines, such as local pharmacies and hospitals. They each have their own system.

As of Thursday, only seniors and other Idahoans currently eligible for shots can get on the waitlist that the health district draws from. So far, about 400,000 Idahoans are eligible to receive virus shots — including health care workers, long-term care facility staff and residents, along with "front-line" essential workers such as teachers and law enforcement.

How does the new system work?

Seniors and other residents of the health district who are eligible to receive the COVID-19 vaccine can sign up for the waitlist now. Some people may already be on the list.

The health district will begin running the lottery Feb. 11. At that point, the health district will randomize the list of registered people and slot them into appointments in their county of residence. The health district says people who sign up for the waitlist before 8 a.m. Feb. 11 should get a call or text over the following 10 days of their appointment time.

People who register for the waitlist after 8 a.m. Feb. 11 should “expect a call or text … between Feb. 22-26,” according to a document that outlines the new lottery system.

Times for the health district’s vaccinations will begin Feb. 15 and stretch until everyone on the waitlist has an appointment, which Rackow said could take until the end of March. The health district will contact those on the waitlist by phone call or text to let them know the time and location for their vaccine. You can choose either text or call notification when you sign up for the waitlist.

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