By Alex P. Vidal
“Being healthy is the crown that only the sick can see. A lot of times, we take it for granted.”—Hasan Minhaj
A FORMER Iloilo City Hall employee who was reported to have died of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) in a New York City hospital on Valentines Day was still alive as of this writing.
“Her death was falsely announced even in the social media but she was still fighting for her life, although doctors have given her a slim chance (to survive). We are expecting a miracle,” reported Suzie, the patient’s former co-worker in the city government during the time of the late former mayor Mansueto Malabor.
“Wala pa nila gani na confirm kon matuod nga nagtaliwan na siya sigi na sila pabarak rest in peace messages sa Facebook. What we need right now are prayers because (name of patient) needs a miracle,” Suzie lamented. “Kadasig lang sa iya nag deteriorate. Naghilanat kag ubo then naging positive na gali sang January pa.”
Suzie declined to name the patient “because her family has requested that they be given peace and privacy for the time being and they don’t want any publicity.”
Suzie, who has been in the US as an “overstaying alien” since 2005, also did not want to reveal her identity.
“We (she and the patient) both are looking forward to go home and visit our families if we will be given the chance to avail President (Joseph) Biden’s amnesty,” said Suzie, a former legislative staff officer in the Iloilo City Council.
The patient is a former staff of a controversial former city councilor who had also served as city legal officer in the two previous administrations.
She has been in critical condition in the ICU of the Queens Presbyterian Hospital, according to our colleague in the Iloilo City Hall Press Corps in 1994-1999.
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The patient, Suzie, and other frontline workers were waiting for their turn to be vaccinated this month, it was learned.
Suzie, who works as a caregiver, said she is scheduled to be inoculated on February 22.
The patient was reportedly among those who had attempted to book for COVID-19 vaccine appointments weeks earlier—ahead of Suzie—but the appointments had been cancelled due to unknown reason.
The patient had been hospitalized for two weeks now, it was learned.
About 830 people booked vaccine appointments the day the patient was reported to have died through links that bypassed New York’s eligibility screener, allowing them to snag coveted slots at state-run vaccination sites while others were forced to wait up to an hour in a virtual queue—if they could get through at all.
Meanwhile, the state Department of Health on February 14 made thousands of new vaccination appointments available at 13 state-run locations after expanding eligibility to an estimated 3 million additional New Yorkers with underlying health conditions, including cancer, high blood pressure and obesity.
All appointments were supposed to be made online through the state’s Am I Eligible online screening tool, or by phone through the state’s phone hotline, 1-833-NYS-4-VAX.
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The crush of newly eligible vaccine seekers flooded the online and phone systems at times Sunday, booking more than 10,000 appointments per hour.
This led some to be directed to try again later and others to experience extended hold times, including waits of up to 60 minutes in a new “virtual queue” function the state rolled out.
“But all the while,” reported the Democrat & Chronicle, “direct links to the state’s booking websites for individual vaccination sites ricocheted around Facebook, Reddit, Twitter, Discord and other social media, allowing New Yorkers to schedule an appointment immediately, bypassing the eligibility screener and wait times – while others remained on hold, awaited a call back or were turned away.”
The USA TODAY Network New York asked the Department of Health about the direct links around 2PM February 14.
Within an hour, the state redirected the links to its Am I Eligible tool, shutting down the direct access to individual sites’ scheduling systems.
New York residents on February 14 booked 250,924 appointments at state-run vaccination sites, more than any single day since the beginning of the vaccine rollout.
Of those, about one third of one percent—roughly 830 appointments—were booked through the now-disabled direct links, according to the Health Department.
(The author, who is now based in New York City, used to be the editor of two local dailies in Iloilo)
