Facing criticism for its chaotic COVID-19 vaccine rollout, California has quietly launched a long-promised statewide website to help residents learn when they are eligible to receive the vaccine and schedule appointments.
Called MyTurn (myturn.ca.gov), the online registry has not yet been widely promoted and still is a work in progress.
Californians can register on the website to be notified when it’s their turn for the vaccine in a number of counties. But for now, it only can be used to schedule appointments in Los Angeles County — and then only if they are health care workers or aged 65 and older.
MyTurn is expected to improve in the coming weeks as more counties are able to link their registration systems to the state’s online platform. At least one local official has alerted their constituents to it, but the state has not yet announced or publicized it.
The website advises people without email addresses or a mobile phone to call the state’s COVID hotline at 833-422-4255.
MyTurn serves as a clearinghouse for residents, a one-stop place to get information that until now has been scattered over 58 counties and three cities. State officials largely have left the on-the-ground logistics of vaccine distribution to local health departments that have partnered with local health providers.
As a result, Californians have had to navigate numerous online registration or notification systems managed by county and city governments, hospitals and even supermarkets. They have spent hours on screens and on the phone, fruitlessly searching for appointments. Some online platforms have buckled under the strain, going dark for hours at a time.
“It’s been frustrating,” said Diane Mendoza, a school transportation manager from Visalia. Earlier this week, she spent hours online and on the phone to get a vaccine appointment for her 82-year-old mother.
The fragmented and confusing rollout prompted a group of tech workers to launch their own statewide information portal, VaccinateCA.com.
“It’s been a blur,” Manish Goregaokar, a Berkeley software engineer and one of the site’s organizers, said of the site’s rapid growth since its launch last week.
“I really wish this (rollout) was more coordinated and that we’d prepped for this more,” Goregaokar said. “We didn’t know when it would be ready but we knew that at some point there is going to be a vaccine. The logistics of this should have been figured out.”