‘I am sorry:’ Dallas Mayor Eric Johnson apologizes to those turned away from getting COVID-19 vaccine

Less than a week after the city opened a COVID-19 vaccine site to the public, Dallas Mayor Eric Johnson apologized on Monday to residents who were turned away from the convention center this weekend after many thought they had booked valid appointments.

At a news conference, Johnson assured that city staff was working on a solution that would stop more than one person from using an individual link to register for the vaccine, but it could take a few days.

The city on Thursday opened its vaccination site to the public at the Kay Bailey Hutchison Convention Center after receiving 5,000 doses from the state.

Officials had said last week that only people who received a text, email or phone call from the city of Dallas could set up a drive-through appointment to get the vaccine. The invitations would be sent to people who had already registered for a vaccine with Dallas County.

On Thursday and Friday alone, the city estimated about 40% of the people who showed up for appointments each day were denied a vaccine because the city didn’t invite them to schedule an appointment, said Rocky Vaz, Dallas’ emergency management director. The city did not have estimates for how many were turned away Saturday. Many also showed up without registering at all. Additionally, hundreds of people with valid appointments were turned away Saturday because the city already had used up its vaccines.

“While we made a massive effort, we were not able to weed out enough people who made unauthorized appointments,” Johnson said, adding that the city culled registration lists beforehand to ensure those with a valid appointment would get a vaccine.

“We had thousands of them, and we still had many people who ignored the cancelation or who, sadly, didn’t see their cancelation by the time they were already in line.”The city also overestimated how many people it could inoculate in one day, Johnson said.

“To all those who waited in line for hours on end, I want to say that I’m sorry,” Johnson said. “We are sorry.”

Scheduling issues

Vaz said Monday that the city didn’t make enough modifications to the third-party appointment schedule software it is using.

The vacant slots after the city canceled invalid appointments left around 2,700 doses remaining by Saturday — nearly three times as many as it had originally intended.

“We cannot do 2,700 in a day, especially in downtown,” Vaz said.

On Saturday, staff from Dallas Fire-Rescue and the city’s emergency management department worked for 12 hours to distribute the remaining vaccines — an extension from the planned nine-hour day.

The city sent 10,000 invitations to register for the 5,000 vaccines, according to Roxana Rubio, a city spokeswoman.

In the end, the city distributed 5,257 doses total. Each vial is labeled as having 10 doses, but some allowed for one or two extra, Rubio said. There were 1,171 doses given on Thursday; 1,351 doses on Friday; and 2,735 doses given on Saturday.

Other problems plagued the city site: There were 450 people who either had valid appointments and were turned away on Saturday, or who were invited by the city to register for vaccines and were unable to schedule an appointment. Rubio said they will be given priority to receive vaccines this week.

The city is working with the county “to be part of a more robust system” that includes people using unique quick response barcodes that would allow for one-time uses, Vaz said, adding that he didn’t know when that would be up and running.

“People who chose to share the link are doing a disservice to the rest of the residents who’ve been registered for a month and have been invited.”

‘Pure devastation’

Cecilia Galbraith said she wasn’t aware that she needed to be informed by the city first that she could register for a vaccine appointment. She said she was grateful when a friend forwarded a link for her to sign up, and she was excited for her 4:50 p.m. Friday appointment to get her first dose.

Nothing in the city’s messages confirming her appointment warned against link sharing or that those appointments wouldn’t be honored.

She waited about 50 minutes in line before learning her appointment wasn’t valid.

”It was disappointing,” said Galbraith, 68. “Everyone is very anxious to get vaccinated, so links are being shared isn’t surprising.”

Boris and Joan Gremont found a link Friday morning to schedule vaccine appointments at the convention center. They received texts and emails from the city confirming their times to get the shots — Joan, 71, at 3:15 p.m. and Boris, 73, at 3:25 p.m.

They made plans to drive to Austin to see their son and his family two weeks after getting their second doses. They also made plans to visit their daughter and her family in Washington, D.C., in April to make their granddaughter’s bat mitzvah.

The Far North Dallas couple left more than an hour early to make sure they made it on time. While checking in outside the drive-through vaccination site’s parking garage after a 90-minute wait, the couple was told that while the confirmation from the city was legitimate, they weren’t on the list to get a dose that day. Further, they were told they never should have gotten confirmation from the city.

”When we booked our appointments, I thought we conquered the world, and we went out to lunch for the first time since being on lockdown to celebrate,” said Boris Gremont, who said he didn’t know he had to be contacted by the city first for vaccines.

He said he and his wife are registered to receive vaccines in Collin County, where they live, as well as in Dallas, Tarrant and Denton counties.

“We went from pure elation at our luck to pure devastation at our luck. How could the city just let this happen?”

”It just shakes your faith in the whole system.”

They’ve since canceled their travel plans.

More doses, new plan

This week, the city received 4,875 doses of the Pfizer vaccine from the state. Three-thousand of those will be distributed by Methodist Dallas Medical Center in Oak Cliff.

The city will vaccinate 2,000 people at the convention center Wednesday and Thursday. Methodist will distribute the city’s remaining doses Thursday and Friday.

Methodist’s Oak Cliff location was the first hospital in North Texas to receive vaccine doses in early December, and health system president Pam Stoyanoff said she is confident that her staff’s distribution system is effective.

Stoyanoff said Methodist will receive a list of registrants from the city, and after those are entered into the hospital’s database, a call system will notify people of their appointments.

“We’ll push [calls] out rather than have people come to us to ensure that only those on the list actually receive the appointment,” said Stoyanoff, who is also chief operating officer for the health system.

Similarly, Johnson urged people not to show up to the convention center this week unless they receive an invitation directly from the city of Dallas.

“I know this is tough,” Johnson said. “We have a massive demand for vaccines right now. But we simply don’t have enough supply to go around. As much as it pains me to have to tell people they have to wait — we simply have to wait.”