Laguna Beach Woman Helps Others With Vaccinations, Othena Advice

LAGUNA BEACH, CA — Orange County's Othena vaccination registration system—a website and app intended to handle vaccination appointments and patient contact on a massive scale — has gotten poor reviews from registrants still languishing in the "waiting room."

According to hundreds of emails Patch has received, little love has been shared for the app that cost the county over $1 million. Those vaccinated through the program have praised the point of dispensing (POD) sites at Disneyland and Soka University, but the app has caused confusion and doubt among many of the county's most vulnerable residents.

To help, one Laguna Beach woman has become an expert on vaccinations. She started with helping her friends and neighbors navigate their way to being successfully vaccinated against coronavirus. Now, she's offering a helping hand to anyone in Orange County who wants it.

Teri Pfeffer Perlstein, a 66-year-old retiree from the software industry, knows more about the perils and pitfalls of getting a vaccine in the county than most people.

Three weeks ago, at 11:30 p.m. on a Sunday, she started a Facebook group she titled VaxMe OC to help others find vaccines and get answers to questions. She has amassed a knowledge base like none other that exists in Orange County.

"I run the Facebook group with four amazing women, and we have gathered a lot of information in the frequently asked questions," she tells Patch.

She encourages all new members to read the FAQs, do their research, and search the site. She has strict rules for membership and for what others can post there.

“The group is laser-focused on getting people vaccination appointments,” she says.

A self-starter and former business owner, she is running the site with a steady hand.

Pfeffer Perlstein's private group, VaxMe OC, has grown to 2,600 members who share tips on vaccine locations and answer local questions about alternative solutions to waiting out Othena's virtual "waiting room."

She expects to reach 3,000 members less than three weeks after her group was launched. The most valuable tool for Pfeffer Perlstein is the carefully curated FAQs document, which directs users to alternative methods of finding vaccines apart from the problematic Othena.

Read: Othena Fail: Vaccination Scheduling App Slammed By OC Supervisors

On Wednesday, she shared advice to residents having trouble with logging in and passwords. Other times, she points people back to answers that they have already found.

Thus far, she feels the Facebook group is working to help people.

"One member wrote that thanks to the site, he alone helped over 50 people,” she says. “We help them figure out how to get appointments on Othena and other places, or how to prepare for their vaccinations.”

Directly or indirectly, she estimates that the Facebook group has already helped over 1,000 people get their appointments.

The confusion is caused by a failure in the application that should have helped people, according to Pfeffer Perlstein. They are making improvements, but in her assessment, they are slow.

One of the biggest gaps in the program, she says, is that those who registered in the first week of launch may have been "skipped.” Other issues include people registering with emails that filter into spam.

“Text messaging would be better,” she says. It's just one of the ideas she has had to improve the site.

According to the Othena App, the online tool selected by Orange County Health Care to manage the vaccine rollout, 570,326 residents have registered into the system since Jan. 1. Meanwhile, only 130,171 of those registrants have had at least one dose of the vaccine.

Another 142,657 are waiting for scheduled appointments.

That leaves 297,498 residents languishing in the Othena "waiting room."

The reasons why so many are waiting is up for discussion.

This failure, including a lack of translation into other languages, was discussed by OC Supervisor Chairman Andrew Do in a recent GSD Studio interview.

Do says that there are many unknowns with how the vaccines were distributed across the county.

“There is an algorithm in the computer (Othena App), and they all have to match up. We only get between 30,000 to 40,000 doses of vaccine a week,” Do told GSD Studio interviewers. “Given the limited supply (of vaccines), the question is, who within the tiers do we target?”

Knowing CVS and other pharmacies are receiving more vaccines in coming weeks, Supervisors Doug Chaffee and Do have turned to CalOptima to identify those with the greatest health issues to find those patients in most need of a vaccine, and reach out directly to them to ensure those most at risk get vaccinated first.

According to Orange County spokeswoman Molly Nichelson, a lack of vaccines to put into arms is reason No. 1.

OC Health Care has only gotten 20 percent of the county's allotment of vaccines, while area hospitals have received the other 80 percent, Nichelson tells Patch.

While the county has joined Gov. Gavin Newsom's directive to prioritize vaccinating those over 65 years old, according to a county spokeswoman, the Othena app is treating registrants on a "first-come, first-serve basis."

That system has the website scheduling residents who registered on Jan. 15, three weeks behind.

They have also informed all patients who have received the first dose that "you will receive a follow-up appointment based upon the vaccine you received."

Second-dose appointments are set 21 days after receiving the Pfizer vaccine and 28 days after receiving the Moderna vaccine, OC Health Care reports.

Those at VaxOC aren't sure if that is the case. They are helping by making the calls and sharing the answers they receive with the group at large.

Many seeking answers have been directed away from OC Health Care toward the company that created the Othena app — its parent company, Composite Apps.

"Our OCCOVID19 Hotline (714) 834-2000 answers your questions about COVID-19 and the #Othena.com website and app, 7 days a week from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. You can also email questions to support@compositeapps.net," they tweeted Tuesday.

After the app was raked over the coals at the last county board of supervisors meeting, issues such as translations appear to have been added to the marketing materials related to the Othena app.

As the county struggles to vaccinate its population, numbers continue to go in a more positive direction.

To join the Orange County Facebook group, VaxMe OC, sign up here.

Tell us your vaccination story in the comments, or by emailing your Patch editor.