Baker’s Follies: How Charlie Baker Must’ve Been On the MTA

The Baker Follies continue on. The governor’s abject failure in making vaccines available to the citizens of Massachusetts by having an easy site which would aid people in signing up for it brought me back to the old song Charlie on the MTA.  It begins with a spoken introduction:

“These are the times that try men’s souls
In the course of our nation’s history
The people of Boston have rallied bravely
Whenever the rights of men have been threatened”

You may know the first words that are sung:

“Well, let me tell you of the story of a man named Charlie On a tragic and fateful day.” 

Charlie Baker’s tragic and fateful day was when the state was charged with the task of distributing the vaccine to its citizens. It was given this charge sometime in December. It first, rightly so, followed the CDC guidelines to establish the groups of people who would be first in line and who would follow them up. Then it had to do some thinking on its own and set up a site to accomplish it.

The first site established by the Commonwealth was a mess, to be charitable. There were other sites to go to but they were also pretty hard to maneuver through. Last Friday Baker’s Dozen  recognized the original site was a disaster so they created a new site.

I tried it out. I thought it worse than what was there before. I went through the procedure and found a site that had an opening. To get to it I had to fill in all types of information about myself and my health and insurance information. I’ve done this endlessly trying to get appointments. There is no way to save what you put in so each attempt requires about five to ten minutes of inputting information.

I labored on through the required material. I finally reached the point to make my appointment only to find no appointments were available. I suppose others were faster than I in filling out their information and scooped up the appointment I wanted. Quite frustrating.

If Baker’s geniuses are unable to figure this out after two months I have to see if I can help them. I am sure someone in our supposedly advanced state can figure out how to implement this without all the b/s now required.

The Commonwealth site should have only this on its front page for folk to fill in: zip code; eligibility status (with a choice), vaccine, 1st or 2nd shot, if 2nd shot the date of the 1st.  That’s it. I press enter and the dates out into the future come up with available sites and open dates.

For instance I fill in “02026” and then check “75 years or older” and then check “Pfizer” and  “2nd” and put in date of first.  I hit enter and the screen shows, for example, “Gillette Stadium, February 26, and several times”

Here is the most important part. I then pick a date and time and reserve it immediately. I have it reserved at that point.

Then I go through and fill in the other information that is required. If it complies with the site’s requirement I am done. If there is a difficulty then it is addressed. If I do not meet the requirements then the reservation is revoked and the date and time go back to being available.

I suggest this is easy and should be done. Come on Charlie. They tell us the  guy on the MTA bearing your name: “Well, did he ever return? No he never returned and his fate is still unlearned.” You do not want to leave your legacy as a guy whose fate is still unlearned.