I don’t get it.

We’ve known for months vaccines for COVID-19 were on the way. So, why are we scrambling to set up sites and other infrastructure now?

People have been complaining – and justifiably so – about the process to make an appointment to receive the inoculation. The process has been so confusing and daunting that dozens of legislators signed up to support an emergency bill filed by state Sen. Eric Lesser.

The bill states, “Notwithstanding any general or special law to the contrary, the Department of Public Health shall immediately establish a centralized, one-stop portal on the mass.gov website to be used to determine eligibility and allow one-stop online sign-up for COVID-19 vaccinations. Said portal shall be made available to all residents of Massachusetts and must be accessible via internet and mobile device. Said portal shall also be translated and accessible in multiple languages. The Department of Public Health shall also establish a centralized phone number for residents of Massachusetts to determine eligibility, allow sign-up for COVID-19 vaccinations, and ask questions regarding vaccination eligibility and the vaccination sign-up process. Said phone number shall be staffed 24-hours a day, seven days per week and shall include sufficient staffing to prevent significant wait times for callers. Vaccine eligibility determination and sign-up for COVID-19 vaccinations via said phone number shall also be accessible in multiple languages. The Department of Public Health shall, by any means practicable, share information about said portal and phone number with the general public, including, but not limited to, via the ‘AlertsMA’ text-based notification system.”

What Lesser is proposing is common sense – and no offense intended – why did a guy with no formal training in healthcare come up with something that should have been done months ago? Because it just makes sense.

Why wasn’t a wholistic way  of handling appointments set up months ago? We understand that many people either can’t get internet service very well, as broadband may not be available to them or they aren’t used to sitting at a computer and navigating through web pages, or they like to talk to a human being who could answers questions for them.

Why there are not mass vaccination sites run by the state in every county? Why is it there is only one west of Worcester and that’s Eastfield Mall in Springfield? Do state officials not understand the distance between Pittsfield, Greenfield, Northampton and Springfield?

There are now sites at Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, Fenway Park in Boston, the Eastfield Mall in Springfield and the DoubleTree Hotel in Danvers. That’s it. The Reggie Lewis Center in Roxbury will soon make the transition to a mass vaccination site run by the state. The Natick Mall and the former Circuit City in Dartmouth will also soon open as mass vaccination sites.

Our friends on the Cape Cod also seem to be have the same disadvantage as we do. It looks like they have to go all the way to Gillette Stadium. Yikes.

Again we’ve known this effort was coming for months. It is the moment for which we have all prayed: a means to stop the spread of the virus through immunization.

I know we have been hampered by a lack of vaccine. I get that all states receive the vaccine through the federal government and the former administration did not do a good job of distribution.

The means of getting the vaccine to the people is up to the states and I can’t say we’ve done a good job.

This past week the state decided the people bringing elderly people to the appointments could get the vaccine as well. Again, a common sense move like that should have been considered from the start.

In my humble opinion, the vaccination process should be designed to be the easiest thing to do – schedule a time some place close by and go get the shot.