Questions arise after issues with Lee County vaccine registration

Even after Lee County’s new reservation system closed down for the night Monday, there remained a lot of confusion over those who did get an appointment and others still waiting on a call.

Many of you say this vaccine is necessary because you have health conditions that could leave you sick if you get COVID-19. That was no more evident than when the appointment call center was flooded by tens of thousands of people calling Monday to reserve their shot.

So, what can people do if they do get a call and missed it because it came up as spam on the caller ID?

Tidal Basin Group, the company handling the reservations, has not yet provided an answer to that question – and so many others you have sent to us over the last day.

WINK News gave them a list and asked them to get us answers by the time our story was set to air. That didn’t happen.

Monday night, the last time WINK News spoke with the CEO of Tidal Basin, he said they’re trying to resolve every issue you tell them about.

It’s the reason the calls blew up the phone lines; the vaccine is so much more than a shot.

Trying to snag an appointment dialed up hours of frustration for Michael Corwin.

“We feel like our lives depend on it,” he said.

“Total, it was around 400 times we dialed.”

He was one of the callers who got stuck in queue and heard nothing Monday night.

“We had a bottle of wine already but we never opened it last night,” he said.

Tidal Basin said they were still doing callbacks Tuesday, scheduling appointments or pre-registering callers for future vaccinations, but some of you were cut off during the callback, like Corwin, creating a rollercoaster of emotion.

“And I got all excited again, then when it dropped me, it was like, here we go again. It’s frustrating … you know, I want to see my grandkids.”

He doesn’t want to miss any calls – or more chances to extend his life.

“We missed a whole year of their lives, it’s just hard on us.”

It’s hard to wonder and worry, and to find out if you have an appointment that will change your life.

Tidal Basin said they’re setting up a helpline for you to contact them.

“I just hope they work out the kinks,” Corwin said.

As for Lee County, a spokesperson said they’re putting up a detailed question and answer section on their website. Scroll down to see some of the questions Lee County answered. and ss soon as we get more, we’ll let you know on-air and on winknews.com.

Anxiety and frustration growing

It’s been an anxious 24 hours for those who made it through to schedule an appointment.

Many were sitting by their phones or carrying them everywhere, waiting to get the call back to officially sign up for the vaccine. The county confirmed late Tuesday afternoon that all appointments have been booked.

Brent Williamson of Sanibel spent the last 24 hours playing the waiting game.

“I’m waiting to get a callback today,” he said, holding a phone as he spoke with WINK News.

Like so many others, Williamson jumped for joy when he got through on the phone Monday.

“We got a recording that said what is your name, what is your birthday,” he explained.

But then, nothing. No call back.