* Bloomberg…

In Mississippi, an online vaccine registration system buckled in a sudden onslaught of traffic. Officials at a local health department in Georgia had to resort to counting every dose they receive before scheduling appointments. A $44 million national vaccine scheduling and tracking system is going largely unused by states.

And California, Idaho and North Dakota undercounted vaccinations because workers forgot to click on a “submit” button at the end of the day.

Across the U.S., a vaccination campaign that was meant to reverse the tide of the pandemic and spur the nation’s economic recovery is getting bogged down by technical glitches and software woes. Cash-strapped public health departments are trying to keep their websites from crashing while booking millions of appointments, tracking unpredictable inventory and logging how many shots they give.

The situation unfolding across the U.S., home to technology giants, is frustrating a public eager for the inoculations. Further, gaps in the data could be distorting the national picture of how efficiently vaccines are being used, if some number of doses that are administered don’t get counted.

“Our sense is that it’s a substantial amount,” said Marcus Plescia, chief medical officer at the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials. “That will become more clear as the data systems get improved and we get a better sense about what we’re missing.”

* Deloitte does it again…

So early in the pandemic, the CDC outlined the need for a system that could handle a mass vaccination campaign, once shots were approved. It wanted to streamline the whole thing: sign-ups, scheduling, inventory tracking, and immunization reporting.

In May, it gave the task to consulting company Deloitte, a huge federal contractor, with a $16 million no-bid contract to manage “covid-19 vaccine distribution and administration tracking.” In December, Deloitte snagged another $28 million for the project, again with no competition. The contract specifies that the award could go as high as $32 million, leaving taxpayers with a bill between $44 and $48 million.

Why was Deloitte awarded the project on a no-bid basis? The contracts claim the company was the only “responsible source” to build the tool.

In reality, many states are choosing to pay other vendors rather than using VAMS for free.

* Meanwhile, a recent poll of Georgians shows that 62 percent of respondents say they are willing to be vaccinated, while 34 percent say they are not. Of those who are not…

* And then there are the quacks…

* These folks need to be arrested…

After a group of protesters managed to disrupt operations at Dodger Stadium’s mass COVID-19 vaccination site Saturday, some Los Angeles officials expressed fury at the demonstrators while calling for increased security at testing and vaccination installations.

Los Angeles Fire Department officials closed the main entrance to the stadium — one of the largest vaccination sites in the country — for about an hour Saturday after 40 to 60 demonstrators appeared on Stadium Way holding signs that decried masks while shouting unfounded claims about the dangers of the vaccine.

The group dispersed around 3 p.m., and there were no arrests or injuries reported, said LAFD Assistant Chief Ellsworth Fortman, who oversees the department’s COVID-19 response.

* Related…

* Many who have received the coronavirus vaccine wonder: What can I safely do?

* Why America is ‘flying blind’ to the coronavirus mutations racing across the globe

* Anti-Vaxxers Won’t Stop Harassing Nurse They’re Convinced Is Dead

* Prosecutors: Chicago woman who works for Aldi shatters window at different grocery store after being told to wear a face mask