Everyone knows that you need an appointment to get vaccinated against Covid-19.

One way to reduce the time and exasperation people spend trying to make that appointment: a single state sign on.

That was the testimony before my committee today of Dr. Gabe Kelen, Director of the Johns Hopkins Office of Critical Event Preparedness and Response.

The state’s website, however,  is a central hub, employing the locator and referral approach, responded acting Secretary of Health Dennis Schrader

I emailed Dr. Kelen, “Is ‘single state sign on’ a model that Maryland should implement to address the current pandemic?  Is it feasible to do so?  Is this a model that Maryland should be prepared to implement for future pandemics?”

This is how he concluded his response:  “Very complicated otherwise most states would have gotten it right by now.”

Soon after the hearing, I heard from a friend and constituent.

My wife had a 3:55 pm appointment at Baltimore City Community College today to get her first Covid vaccination. She received an email confirming the appointment yesterday. When we arrived in plenty of time at the site, we were turned away, told that they were only doing second shots

We did everything we were supposed to do and we were tossed aside.

Now, we have to apply all over again.

This just isn’t right.’

It drove home the urgency of doing this better.