SUN CITY CENTER, Fla. — Cory Morrocco was on a mission to get her 77-year-old mother vaccinated.
It started two weeks ago when she spent all day on the internet bouncing from county website to county website trying to get her mom an appointment.
Morocco initially preferred to get her mom a reservation in her home county of Hillsborough but after striking out online and on the phone, she started trying neighboring counties as well.
After multiple website crashes, error messages and time spent dialing busy phone lines, a stranger sent her a private message on Twitter recommending Morrocco try to call the Hardee County Health Department.
She was able to snag an appointment but the hour-long drive from Sun City Center to Hardee County would have been too much for her mom. Morrocco decided to drive 19 hours from Rhode Island to take her mom to Hardee County for her first COVID-19 shot.
"She got her shot but now she’s got to get back for her second so I’m going to hire a driver," said Morrocco who also tried desperately to get her in-laws appointments through Hillsborough County.
After some technical hiccups and more frustration, Morrocco was eventually able to get her husbands' parents vaccinated but she believes the "free-for-all" approach in Florida could be making the rollout even more stressful for vulnerable seniors, many of who aren't technically savvy.
"If they fixed it and everyone could stay in their own county, you wouldn’t have this nightmare," she said.
The federal government isn't allowing states and cities to put residency restrictions on who can get the vaccine creating even more demand on an already limited supply. Morrocco said she's come across people traveling from out-of-state to get the vaccine in Florida saying, "When we were there in Hardee, three cars pulled in. None had Florida plates."
Diane Gagne is a Largo snowbird, spending November-April in Pinellas County, Florida. She spends the other six months of the year in her home of Quebec, Canada.
Gagne has been trying to get vaccine reservations for herself and her husband through the Pinellas County Department of Health for two weeks now. They're not eligible to receive vaccines in Canada yet.
"I will try again but I prefer to wait for the Johnson & Johnson vaccine as it’s only going to be one shot and I won't be so worried about where are we going to get the second one," said Gagne who plans on calling the county for an appointment once they get more doses.
10 Tampa Bay reached out to the departments of health in Hillsborough, Pinellas, Pasco, Polk, Manatee, and Sarasota counties to find out how many people they have vaccinated that live either outside the county or state. We'll update this story when we get a response.
In a news conference Thursday, Gov. Ron DeSantis said Florida has vaccinated more than 400,000 seniors. A tweet from the governor's account said that's more seniors than any other state in the nation.
A spokesperson with the Florida Department of Health said in an e-mail, "As of the most recent vaccination report the state has administered 774,768 vaccines for COVID-19. Of those only 3.8% are listed as out of state, which includes snowbirds and others with part-time residency."
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