Vaccine Appointments

Local officials talk about the problem of "no shows" at covid vaccine appointments.

Please don't over-book.

Bradley county leaders want to remind folks about the dangers of overfilling vaccine appointment times.

News 12s joeli poole joins us live to tell us why no shows can be a real problem.

Local officials want to encourage people who make multiple covid-19 vaccination appointments to cancel the ones they don't need- immediately after receiving their shot.

Although most people aren't aware of the consequences, no-shows are causing issues for the county.

The number of "no shows" for vaccination appointments with the bradley county health department is increasing.

Officials say this is due to residents over-booking vaccine time slots in order to insure that they receive the vaccine.

However this becomes an issue when the person fails to cancel their outstanding appointments- both for other people needing a vaccination and for the good of the community.

Adam lewis "what happened is that they don't go back and cancel the appointment that they made with the health department but what it does is hold up the line and causes a back up because you are still holding that spot for someone.

The issue is the timeliness of others who would like to make an appointment but can't because those time slots are booked up."

Poole "each day, vaccine doses are prepared based on the number of appointments for the day, so when the person doesn't show up, it increases the probability of that vaccine going to waste."

Adam lewis " we just prefer they go back and cancel it so that the time slot would open back up for whenever is next.

But we have been fortunate throughout this entire process, even before this particular challenge popped up that no vaccines have been wasted."

In order to vaccinate as many people as possible and prevent waste, it is important that you cancel an appointment that you don't need.

If the goal is to alleviate the covid-19 virus, we must all do our part.

Not canceling your outstanding vaccine appointment causes other residents to have to wait longer to receive theirs.

For information on vaccine appointments go to our website wdef dot com in bradley county joeli poole news 12