"Angry to Death Over Vaccine Reservations"…Connection Failures and Sneaky Bookings Leave Citizens 'Boiling'

Vaccine Reservation System Crashes for Ages 50-52
Fourth Surge in Vaccine Booking System Overload
Civilians Say "Errors Not Just Once or Twice, We're Angry"

Users experienced inconvenience due to difficulties accessing the vaccine appointment reservation website. Photo by Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency website capture.

[Asia Economy Reporter Heo Midam] "It's not like we're testing our patience, so how long do we have to wait?", "You have to be able to connect to make a vaccine reservation."

Recently, errors have been continuously occurring on the COVID-19 vaccination pre-reservation site, causing problems. Due to a surge in users, the system has become unresponsive, and even eligible individuals have been mistakenly informed that they are not eligible, leading to widespread dissatisfaction among citizens.

Additionally, on online communities, so-called 'trick methods' that allow users to bypass the waiting queue and make reservations directly on the site have been shared, further increasing confusion. As a result, citizens are raising their voices for thorough system management by the quarantine authorities.

On the 20th, starting from 8 PM, pre-reservations for vaccines began for approximately 2.36 million people aged 50 to 52 (born 1969?71). However, system access delays continued to cause inconvenience for users. This vaccine reservation outage incident is the fourth occurrence following those on the 12th (ages 55?59), the 14th (resumption of reservations after early closure on the 12th), and the 19th (ages 53?54).

As a result, complaints have continued on social networking services (SNS) such as Twitter. Netizens expressed, "I kept waiting to make a reservation for my parents, but when it was my turn, an error suddenly occurred, so I had to wait again," and "I was happy to see only 7,000 people ahead as soon as I entered the site, but when it was my turn, it reset again. When I tried to wait from the beginning, there were over 100,000 people ahead," among other grievances.

Criticism has also come from within the political sphere. Kim Woong, a 51-year-old member of the People Power Party and a target of this pre-reservation, posted on Facebook, "I logged in at 8 PM and saw '7,367 people ahead of you.' After waiting for 30 minutes, when it finally reached zero, it returned to the first screen," adding, "I was stunned and waited a long time, then saw '140,000 people ahead of you.' This is the K-reservation system." He also included hashtags such as '#IfYoureIncompetentJustLineThemUp.'

Recently, a method called 'tricky reservation' has been shared mainly on online communities. Photo by 'FM Korea' screen capture.

Meanwhile, various trick methods to avoid waiting in line have been shared on online communities, sparking controversy. These posts claim that entering specific commands on the internet or turning on airplane mode on a mobile phone, then turning it off after 3 seconds and pressing the refresh button, allows users to bypass the waiting screen and proceed directly to the reservation screen.

Those who succeeded in making vaccine reservations using these trick methods responded with comments like, "Thanks to this, I was able to make a vaccine reservation for my parents," "I entered directly without waiting and made a reservation," and "I did a good deed for the first time in a while."

Previously, the 'trick reservation' controversy also occurred during the pre-reservation for ages 55?59 on the 14th. At that time, a bypass link that immediately led to the reservation information input screen spread, causing controversy. The Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) promised to improve the system, but the reservation tricks worked again this time.

Given this situation, dissatisfaction with the unstable reservation system continues. Kim (26), a university student who tried to make a pre-reservation on behalf of his parents, said, "Just as I was about to wait and make a reservation, an error popped up telling me to reconnect. It was so absurd that I was speechless," expressing anger, "In the end, I waited 2 hours and 30 minutes to make a reservation. The COVID-19 situation is already difficult enough, but do we have to struggle this much just to make a vaccine reservation?"

Choi (51) also said, "I had seen news about the vaccination reservation site being down, but I never thought I would actually experience it," adding, "The government should properly handle such critical matters. I wonder if they are blind to the citizens suffering from COVID-19."

Meanwhile, the authorities apologized, stating that access disruptions occurred due to changing the site according to the vaccine reservation target schedule.

Jung Woojin, head of the COVID-19 Vaccination Response Task Force System Management Team, said at a regular briefing on the 20th, "We open the reservation system each time according to the reservation target schedule, and since the site changes slightly each time, we regret not being able to carefully manage the system codes," adding, "These errors were cases we failed to quickly recognize. We will continue to look for ways to recognize and respond more carefully and quickly."