LANDOVER HILLS, Md. — Chances are you or someone you know has struggled to get a vaccine appointment.
But even when they do get one, it's not always as simple as just getting the shot. Some people end up waiting in line outside in the cold for hours.
That's what happened for hundreds of elderly people in Prince George's County on Tuesday.
"Total was three hours, outside in line for two, and then another hour inside," Susan Miller of Bowie said. Miller had gone to the county vaccination site at Prince George's Sports and Learning Center in Landover with an appointment for just after 12:30 p.m.
She and her husband Paul Binkowski, 70, said they and hundreds of other people spent hours standing outside in the cold waiting.
"I just really felt for the people with walkers. That was awful that they were standing there," Miller said.
Prince George's County Executive Angela Alsobrooks had promised after similar problems weeks ago that she'd fix the issue, and that if there was a line, seniors could wait in their cars instead of outside in the elements.
"I did not feel safe waiting among all those people. That was a major issue. My husband and I haven't even been in a store in a year. We haven't seen our families. We've been totally isolated. So to suddenly be thrown in an environment with hundreds of people made me feel very unsafe," Miller said.
Prince George's is far from alone. There have been long lines in Montgomery, Fairfax, and D.C.
Many jurisdictions have been using web-based software called PrepMod to schedule appointments. Google it and you'll find more than one thousand news stories about problems.
It's created so many problems in Prince George's that the county plans to replace it by the end of the week. And on Wednesday, the wait at the health department vaccination site was much shorter.
County officials said on Tuesday, the state PrepMod website overbooked appointments by more than 300 people -- many of them were not even eligible.
In a prepared statement, a county spokesman said, "Our Health Department had appointments capped for the day at 1,200 at the Sports & Learning Complex. However, despite the cap, the State Prepmod site, which we are currently working to move away from by the end of this week, allowed people to share links with others, resulting in several hundred additional people being able to schedule appointments.
"We had at least 1,530 appointments booked, some by individuals who were ineligible to be vaccinated but were still able to schedule appointments anyways through the State site. Ineligible individuals who showed up were turned away at the door, which significantly slowed down the line.
"We did not turn away individuals who were eligible and had managed to schedule appointments, resulting in 1,308 vaccinations at the Sports & Learning Complex yesterday."
The Bowie couple did finally get their vaccine. "I felt like running up the streets yelling, 'I got my second shot!' when I got home," Binkowski said.