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No, nearly half the population of Cook County did not try to book a vaccine appointment Monday morning

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* That headline links to this WBBM Newsradio headline…

Nearly 1.9 million seek vaccine appointments at Cook County site in first hour of website launch

* And that story links to this Daily Herald story…

As proof, “our website this morning saw nearly 1.9 million hits in the first hour,” Cook County Department of Public Health spokeswoman Deborah Song said. She was describing the onslaught of people trying to hook up with vaccinations at a second Cook County mass inoculation site opening Wednesday at Triton College in River Grove.

“We booked more than 3,400 appointments in the first 35 minutes,” Song said. “At its peak, the website experienced 65,810 hits in a single minute, which can slow down some of the functionality.”

* I reached out to Donald Bolger at the Cook County Department of Public Health, who said these were not unique site visits and the site stopped booking appointments after the first 3,400.

A “hit” is defined as “a request to a web server for a file.” Depending on the page, there can be numerous hits per page-view, and, take it from me, people can generate a ton of page-views by constantly refreshing their browsers.

We went through all this “hit” vs. “visits” vs. “unique visits” with reporters and others decades ago when the Web was still relatively young and people were unclear on the concept. There’s no excuse for that now.

This is not to say there isn’t intense interest out there, but the headlines are no less goofy and misleading.

…Adding… Phil Kadner described how this happened…

“We are pleased to announce that Cook County Health has released additional availability of vaccine appointments to Phase 1A and 1B residents of Cook County…To find an appointment, please click” — and an internet link was provided [Sunday evening].

I jumped for joy. Shouted to my wife that we were in. And clicked on the link.

Sorry, Charlie, there are no openings. Just toying with you, buddy.

The next day, in the morning, I received another text message:

“The additional availability of vaccine appointments at Cook County Health sites has been fully booked. More will be released as vaccine is received. Please be patient.”

Phil went on to write that he’d seen Gov. Pritzker vaccinated, which is false. Maybe he was thinking of Mayor Lightfoot.

posted by Rich Miller
Thursday, Feb 4, 21 @ 10:06 am

Comments

The problem, of course, is not the demand. It’s that only 3400 shots were available.

Comment by walker Thursday, Feb 4, 21 @ 10:22 am
Anyone who ever tried to get concert tickets online pre-COVID at the onsale time should be familiar with this phenomenon.

Comment by Ron Burgundy Thursday, Feb 4, 21 @ 10:26 am
I was trying to access the website Monday night for my in-laws. It wouldn’t even load. The hit count doesn’t surprise me if others, like me, hit the refresh button multiple times and from multiple devices.

A definite face-palm moment on confusing number of hits with number of people.

Comment by From DaZoo Thursday, Feb 4, 21 @ 10:29 am
No surprise WBBM butchered the facts to get the headline; not the first time. Years ago a Bill Curtis tease for the 10pm news was “Plans to drain Lake Michigan”. Also, as a limited defense for newer/younger reporters, some are unaware of the technical differences between page hits, requests, etc., and have no idea how they different on the ‘Net.

Comment by thisjustinagain Thursday, Feb 4, 21 @ 10:30 am
I’ve been trying to buy a ps5 for months, but everytime they release another batch, bots come and scoop them up. It was initially released in November, but still, the only versions you can find are scalpers charging twice the price.

While I don’t expect bots to be developed for getting people vaccine appointments, I wonder how the black market is taking to the vaccines? I’m hearing people say that their richer friends already got them from “concierge doctors” and other people are getting them out of turn if they know somebody. One again the “best healthcare in the world” only applicable when you’re rich. Cool, cool, cool, cool, cool.

Comment by Commisar Gritty Thursday, Feb 4, 21 @ 10:33 am
I do not remember much about the Queuing Theory I took but I do recall that one queue is the most efficient. Unfortunately no plan was made for this process. It is clear people are making many multiple attempts to get in line. Also likely is that some people are / will be making multiple appointments out of folo. Then the problem becomes what to do with the vaccine prepared for no-shows. Once your priority group is called best to wait two weeks if yo can.

Comment by Peters Piece Thursday, Feb 4, 21 @ 10:39 am
The state of Illinois should not be directing people to a web site that is not functioning at all.

It should just say “Sorry, we have completely messed up the covid vaccination process. We have no idea when you might be able to get vaccinated.”

Comment by Friendly Bob Adams Thursday, Feb 4, 21 @ 11:30 am
=Sorry, we have completely messed up the covid vaccination process. We have no idea when you might be able to get vaccinated.=

Over 60,000 people were vaccinated yesterday. Maybe take a breath or something.

Comment by JS Mill Thursday, Feb 4, 21 @ 11:38 am
Bots can be created to contact website multiple times every minute, so looking at hits only can be deceptive…..

Comment by CaptMehl Thursday, Feb 4, 21 @ 11:41 am
== Years ago a Bill Curtis tease for the 10pm news was “Plans to drain Lake Michigan”. ==

Apparently he’s a Stan Freberg fan?

Reason 123,697 why Bill Kurtis is still the best.

Comment by Northsider Thursday, Feb 4, 21 @ 12:33 pm
To make an appointment open about 20 pages or how ever many you can see on your screen. Then click each one to make your appointment. Eventually you should get an appointment.
I used to do this to get a spot at the Park Kids Summer program. It works.

Comment by Fly like an eagle Thursday, Feb 4, 21 @ 12:53 pm
It troubles me that county health departments are telling people to sign up on multiple platforms. If just clogs the system

Comment by Soccermom Thursday, Feb 4, 21 @ 3:54 pm