Today is the first day that anyone over 16 can make a vaccine appointment in New York. A couple of my daughter’s friends have gotten appointments for tomorrow at CVS. Apparently the state vaccination website does not list appointments at pharmacies, so it’s worth checking the CVS, Walgreens and Wegmans pharmacy sites. I don’t know about other states, but it’s probably worth researching if you’re looking for an appointment.
We’re rapidly reaching the point where there will be more vaccine than arms, which is great.
Open thread.
Update: Mike S recommended Find a Shot – looks promising!
PaulB
Last week I used the link Vaccine Finder to get an appointment at a local pharmacy. It wasn’t perfect, it told me there was availability at several locations that did not have an opening. But it worked in the end to get me a slot locally 2 days from my booking.
ruemara
I’ve been looking for appointments for my stepfather & brothers from here in CA for the past few weeks using the pharmacy websites. I can only hope this means more are available because all the sites are booked solid.
Al Z.
My 17 year old daughter just texted me for her insurance information; she was able to get an appointment for her 1st Pfizer shot today at the NYS Fairgrounds. Hopefully my 15 year old will be eligible sometime this year once the youth trials are over.
O. Felix Culpa
My Brooklyn son and DIL just got their first shots last week. My AZ parents and Ms. O (in NM) are fully vaccinated; I get Moderna #2 in two weeks. Only immediately family member still unvaccinated is Chicago son. Hopefully that will be taken care of soon.
AWOL
i’m well over 60. I had covid at least twice and still have antibodies. I am a survivor of a severe smoking-related cancer. I volunteered to be in the NYC Board of Health’s covid tracing group.
And I can’t get an appointment. Anywhere.
It’s disgusting.
JMG
Alice and I are fully vaccinated. So is my son. His fiancee gets her first shot April 17. But my daughter in France has no idea when she’ll be vaccinated. Vaccine distribution there is abysmal. It won’t be open to anyone over 55 until mid-May!!
Cheryl Rofer
Here’s a list of the states that will be open to 16+ by April 19:
WereBear
Mr WereBear and I are one shot down, and have appointments for the second.
We’re in a rural area in Elise Stefanik’s district (spit) and every time we’ve shown up… we’re the only ones waiting for the shot.
Something is out of sync with the lack of appointments I find when I go online.
notsurewhoiam
My daughter was able to get appointments for my granddaughter’s 1st & 2nd Pfizer shots at their local CVS. The trick, she said, was to pull down the West Virginia tab on the CVS website and input the necessary information there, and then enter their zip code (in MA). Good luck to all!
Roger Moore
Except that a big part of the arm shortage is people who could be vaccinated refusing. If that keeps us from reaching herd immunity, it’s a terrible outcome.
Scout211
@ruemara:
Have you tried https://myturn.ca.gov/ ? There has been a huge increase in the amount of vaccinations delivered to California this week. Several areas are opening mass vaccination sites in the next few days in NorCal and are open for appointments right now.
Cameron
The CVS website is a good place to start. I got appointments for both shots immediately here in Florida, and my sister reported the same thing in Texas. CVS seems to have it together.
Mike S (Now with a Democratic Congressperson!)
I used Find-a-shot to get my appointment (Rite-aid). It searches all the major pharmacies every 4 minutes and tell you about appointments ranked by proximity to your zipcode.
Redshift
I got notice for an appointment from the county health department yesterday. I’d been trawling Vaccine finder and the pharmacy websites (CVS, Walgreens, Giant, Safeway, Harris Teeter, and Walmart) on and off, and consistently found (after varying amounts of hassle), no appointments available in your area.
I think the pharmacies are doing a decent job, and whether you can get an appointment with them depends on the enthusiasm for vaccination where you are.
Old School
@Cheryl Rofer:
Even better than that. Those are the states that are open to all adults now!
gvg
i got my shots, but now the health department keeps sending me reminders even though I’m done. Their opt out system kept saying they didn’t have anyone with my name in the system even though I was getting reminders. I emailed them about it.
DeSantis revised his orders to allow 16 year olds to get vaccinated. It sounds like he didn’t even know one of the vaccines was approved for 16.
Ruckus
I have married friends, wife got them appointments for the same vaccine, same day, at the same time at 2 separate locations about 15 miles apart here in CA. She would try every night to get appointments with no luck but openings are happening. Both were drive through locations, one at a university and the other at an amusement park. The pharmacies around here are small locations, in other stores, and normally only have 2 or 3 employees filling prescriptions, so I’d bet that they don’t do vaccinations 8-10 hrs a day and so appointments really aren’t widely available. Every one is listed as having no times available for the foreseeable future, every time I’ve checked. But the drive through locations, of which there are many within easy driving distance of most here in socal have a huge throughput, at least a few hundreds of shots per day, per location.
LA county health department shows that within it’s borders as of 3/27 over 4 million shots have been given, 1.3 million second shots and does not include Pasadena and Long Beach, both of which have their own separate health departments.
dmsilev
@ruemara: Depending on where in CA they are, it might be an option to drive one or two counties over into the more rural parts of the state. Availability is much higher there in general, to the point that they are accepting out-of-county people for appointments.
John S.
Despite the Deathsantis fuckery, things have really opened up here in South Florida.
I got my first shot last weekend only a few days after it opened up to people over 40, and my wife was able to get her first shot a couple weeks prior as a teacher. We will both be fully vaxxed by May, and we are super happy about it.
Redshift
@Mike S (Now with a Democratic Congressperson!): That’s pretty nice, much more effective than the CDC pharmacy search. It confirms what I was finding – I couldn’t actually get to appointments at the places it showed closest to me. It appears Virginia has zip code restrictions for scheduling, I think to try to make sure the vaccine gets to targeted populations, rather than in or out of state “vaccine tourists.”
dmsilev
@Ruckus: Pasadena reported last week that a bit over 50% of all adults in the city have gotten at least a first dose. And 95% of seniors (65+), which bodes well for the local “idiots refusing to get dosed” rate. The numbers are about a week old (updates are Tuesday evenings), so it’s probably in the mid to upper fifties by now.
WaterGirl
@Cheryl Rofer: If I counted right, there are already 43 states doing that. I feel confident that the remaining 7 states have Republican governors.
Good on the 43 states!
Benw
Tryin to get my 16 yo his first appointment right now
Served
Illinois opens to all on the 19th, except for Chicago which is still lagging and hasn’t announced an expansion date. The only thing we seem to have in the city is an abundant supply of is excuses from leadership.
JMG
I really wonder how many people who tell pollsters and reporters they won’t get the vaccine are lying through their teeth. I know the anecdotal evidence about near-empty vaccination sites in rural areas, but it could be that’s because they’re rural, many fewer people to begin with.
Vince
I can tell you for sure that the Maryland site does not list appointments at pharmacies. It lists the pharmacies that are dispensing vaccines but the actual appointments have to be scheduled on the pharmacy website.
MomSense
PSA – if you are a successful white Dude in your 40s you still need to wear a fucking mask and not go out for drinks with a bunch of other successful white dudes and then go to work not feeling well and expose all your employees in your office to COVID.
Catherine D.
In central NY, also check Kinney Drug. That’s where I got my first shot (one week to go for the second)
Ric Drywall
@Vince: That’s how it is at the Finger Lakes Region site. It’s actually what I would expect. Just a link to where else you can go.
WaterGirl
I believe that there is no connection between state sites and the federal sites, so being signed up for a state-related system will not notify you of openings in the federal pharmacy-related system.
Patricia Kayden
HeleninEire
@WereBear: Same thing here in NYC. I lucked into an appointment at a city hub; the Flushing Public Library in Queens; by continuous logging on and refreshing. It took weeks. When I arrived, there was no line. The 15 minute waiting area was only 1/3 full. I was out in less than 30 minutes.
One of the workers there said that they would probably begin accepting walk-ins soon.
raven
My first was Jan 10, second Feb 14th. My wife had her second last week. Almost everyone we know over 40 has at least one and Georgia is supposed to be terrible. I guess Athens, as always, is different.
WaterGirl
@MomSense: Uh oh. Sounds like that happened to you or someone in your family?
Roger Moore
@Ruckus:
The state website shows LA county as being just short of 5 million shots as of 4/4. LA Times reports the same number and says the county is delivering about 90,000 doses per day. Unfortunately, at that pace it’s going to take another 4 months or so to vaccinate everyone who’s eligible.
Eunicecycle
@MomSense: That sounds very specific. Were you exposed at work?
dmsilev
@Roger Moore: The county Public Health department said yesterday that they’re expecting about 15% more doses this week than last, and most of that is a big increase in single-dose J&J vaccines (they said they’ve gotten over 100,000 doses of J&J this week). That will help accelerate the timeline.
Major Major Major Major
I’ve heard that the phone hotline works better than the website, if you’ve got time to sit around on hold. 1-833-NYS-4VAX (1-833-697-4829). As for city residents… we got ours through the NYC vaccine finder. https://vaccinefinder.nyc.gov/
Roger Moore
@dmsilev:
That’s good news. I guess we’re still limited by available doses rather than our ability to give them out or people willing to be vaccinated, so a boost in availability is great.
craigie
We have found the CVS site, and CVS itself, to be the most useful in getting appointments.
JPL
@O. Felix Culpa: My Brooklyn niece and hubby just got the Moderna vaccine. I’m so excited for them, and hope that we can all get together soon.
MomSense
@Eunicecycle:
Yup.
JPL
@raven: My DIL is pregnant and her OB/GYN gave her the Moderna vaccine last Friday. She was so excited, because the practice had been hesitant.
WereBear
@HeleninEire: We wound up being almost 2 hours early but I told him, “I think they will just take us” and no one else was waiting, so they did.
We did have an appointment and were in their system… that’s probably something they must have.
RobertB
My daughter just got her first shot (Pfizer). The company that my primary care provider works for will send me emails whenever they get a batch of the vaccine. They don’t say how many, they just say what flavor, and when they’re accepting appointments. When they run out, they turn off the appointment app until the next time.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
Meanwhile, on the other side of the country…
WaterGirl
@MomSense: And it’s not the first time with this guy, right?
Am I right in thinking that you have already had the first shot, at least? That should help the odds significantly, but it’s still horrible.
dmsilev
@Roger Moore: I think that’s right. The good news is that the ambient case load is about as low as it’s been since the beginning of the pandemic (finally, after a really bad fall/winter), so even if things start to go south again soon we have at least a month or so of breathing room to get doses in arms. That should be enough to get half the population or more with at least some level of protection.
Nelle
@Cheryl Rofer: Iowa opened up yesterday to all. My DiL got hers. On the Des Moines news last night, they featured a pharmacist in a small town two hours away who said he had 800 shots and appointments available, so come on down. The R guv seems to be directing an inordinate amount of vaccines to rural areas. We drove about 40 minutes for a second shot when the urban area wasn’t getting any vaccines.
My daughter and her husband, in Phoenix, volunteered to direct traffic at a big site. Eleven and a half hours in the sun, but they got theirs. They earned it.
Fair Economist
Find a Shot just let me book an appointment (25 miles away) after 1 week of trying so thank you Mike S!
MomSense
@WaterGirl:
Its not the first time at my office but the first time with this guy. I had my shot on Wednesday and this happened on Friday so I don’t think my shot was protecting me yet. At least I was wearing my mask.
Causticity Acerbity
My boys, 16 and 18, and I received invites to make appointments for April 3rd at Ford Field in Detroit for the Pfizer vaccine about a week ago. My wife, who registered all of us for the waitlist did not. She was understandably upset. Things worked out for her when she received an invite from Oakland County to receive dose 1 of the Pfizer vaccine 2 days before us and much closer to home. When we arrived at Ford Field on Saturday, we were surprised to see them taking large numbers of walk ins as well as the people with appointments. Though the walk ins made the process longer because they didn’t have paperwork already filled out, it was a huge relief to see so many people lined up to get the vaccine.
WaterGirl
@MomSense: That’s bad management all around at your office, but we knew that already. A bad place to be working during a pandemic! This makes me so angry, and now you have to wonder for 2 weeks.
I hope you love your job in other ways.
edit: Do you work with/for idiots? Or just assholes?
Roger Moore
@WereBear:
They need to have you in the system, but they want to vaccinate people. If they aren’t busy because they have open appointments, I’d bet they’d be perfectly happy to put walk-ins into the system.
Roger Moore
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
If he started to show symptoms just a few days after vaccination, the chances are he was already infected when he got his shot. And given that people are maximally infectious right about when they start to develop symptoms, he very likely infected people at his Easter service. Fucker.
WereBear
@Roger Moore: They certainly should be!
mali muso
Woot! Heading over to the mass vaccination clinic for dose #2 of Pfizer. Marked my calendar for two weeks from now as “immunity day” (yes, I will still take all the precautions, but you gotta celebrate!)
Brachiator
@dmsilev:
That’s pretty impressive. I wonder how Long Beach, which also has a health authority separate from Los Angeles County, is doing?
Overall, even though California has pockets of anti-vaxx stupidity, we are doing well.
WaterGirl
@mali muso: I can’t remember… were you able to get an early start on your shots because of your volunteering? Either way, congratulations!
Scout211
If any of you are near Stockton, California, a new state sponsored mass vaccination site just opened at the Stockton arena. I just checked and there are appointments all through April, as of this morning. They say that they have the capacity to administer 5,400 shots daily. Appointments are through the state run site. https://myturn.ca.gov/
mali muso
@WaterGirl: Kind of, sort of. My employer is hosting the site and we have all been volunteering as we are willing/able to assist. So when there were extra doses at the end of a clinic, the word went out for us to get down there if we wanted a chance at a shot.
Mike S (Now with a Democratic Congressperson!)
@Fair Economist: Great news! Find-a-shot is good. After I got my first shot, I went and made a donation by “buying them a cup of coffee!”
Although I think the government could have done it better and sooner, I’m glad some non-profits have stepped up. We shouldn’t have to rely on goodwill iniatives.
WaterGirl
@mali muso: I think that anyone who volunteers at a vaccination site should get the vaccine early. Volunteering involves some risk to anyone who does so, and if all volunteers and paid people at those sites were vaccinated to begin with, that would make it safer for everyone.
Either way, so glad you are almost there on shot #2!
germy
I got my pfizer vaccine through walgreens and I wondered why they scheduled the second shot 28 days later rather than 21.
Now I know. It was more convenient for them.
https://www.10tv.com/article/news/health/coronavirus/vaccine/walgreens-pfizer-vaccine-doses-21-days/507-6f99e514-e36a-4076-a81c-57bccd6ebb97
rikyrah
Been saying this for awhile:
sign up everywhere there is a pharmacy
CVS
Walgreens
Walmart
Target
I got mine at the local store attached to the ALBERTSONS chain
And, once you do, stay up one night, and start at midnight – 3 am.
I literally got an appointment at 2:30 in the morning, cause I went to order groceries.
rikyrah
Also, if you are in a state with a sizeable Native American population, and you’re near them, see if you can get an appointment with them.
burnspbesq
@Roger Moore:
We’ve known that about Gianforte for a while.
rikyrah
@O. Felix Culpa:
He should be able to find one in Chicago . Too many places: Pharmacies(CVS, Walgreens, Meijer, WalMart, Target, Jewel-Osco,Mariano’s), Chicago Public Health, Cook County Public Health, United Center, A J&J site in Des Plaines.
rikyrah
@Roger Moore:
Not really. We need to get to those in rural areas WHO WANT THE SHOT.
And, the homebound.
burnspbesq
In Texas, CVS, Walmart, Walgreen, and HEB are out-performing state and local governments.
Kinda makes you wonder what it’s like in the huge swaths of the state where there’s no towns big enough to support any of those stores.
rikyrah
@Served:
That’s why I went to the suburbs.
rikyrah
@Patricia Kayden:
I haven’t had a cold, and neither did anyone I know this winter. I think masks and washing hands is to blame.
burnspbesq
@rikyrah:
‘And to low-income folks and POC in urban areas. The local paper has been all over the story of how East Austin has been underserved. I imagine there are large parts of Dallas, Houston, San Antonio, and El Paso where the same is true.
Obvious Russian Troll
Got mine in Toronto this morning. The provincial rollout has not been impressive, but there is some movement now.
My wife is annoyed, though–she’s literally one year too young to get it per the current standards (55 and older in our postal code).
rikyrah
@MomSense:
AGAIN, with these muthaphuckas, MomSense?
UHHHHHH
WaterGirl
@rikyrah: You said it better than I did!!!
Mousebumples
Got the happy news that my dad (vaccine reluctant) is signed up for a shot at Walgreens on Friday!
He apparently had been conflating the A/Z safety concerns (blood clots) with Pfizer and wanted Moderna. But he’s got an appointment for both doses so Yay!
BruceFromOhio
Just pointed the NY-bound YAFromOhio to the pharmacies mentioned and GetAShot.org
Thank you!!!
Alice
I got Moderna #1 this morning – only side effect so far is uncontrollable smiling. I give great props to the county health departments in northwestern Nevada who pooled their resources and put together an organized, transparent, and easy booking process. Hooray for science and hooray for public employees!
J R in WV
@Alice:
That’s great, congratulations! We smiled a lot too, and had some GOOD champagne that evening! Splurge!
Best wishes to all the B-J folks, sounds like most of us are working on getting a vaccination, or have got it in the bag.
SWMBO
My family have all had at least one shot so far.
My friend from high school is a nurse supervisor in NE Arkansas who supervises their vaccine clinic at his hospital. He checks paperwork, verifies eligibility and appointments, jumps in to administer shots if it gets busy and watches everyone for the 15 minutes of wait time. The entire county is just over 100,000 people. They have weekly vaccine clinics and have done between 800-1500 shots per week. They have run satellite locations (in the community center 20 miles away) and he’s trying to get everyone to take the shots. He has even made house calls after hours to get shots in arms. He doesn’t waste a shot. One of our unsung heroes in this godawful mess.
Ruckus
@Patricia Kayden:
[I get the guys point. I’m also coming in from work, on the west coast, so haven’t read most of the posts.]
We did learn that masks work. We have in fact known for a very long time, well before Covid that masks work to cut down the transmission of airborne diseases and work place pollution. We know this from the medical profession and from a lot use of masks around the world, like in China, where this started, where a lot of people live in tight quarters and where mask wearing is not abnormal nor is the leadership stark raving insane (they may not be our cup of tea, but they hold most of their citizens in better regard and are far smarter than the ex moron.)
Ruckus
@Roger Moore:
Considering that LA county is more populated than 41 states, and the last guy, not in charge of anything, including his own rather limited mental capabilities, and the number of people who don’t think they need this or are stubbornly refusing (I know of someone who was adamant they weren’t getting the vaccine, and found out they won’t be able to travel and that their parents need to move to a mature adult facility and they can not help or visit without a vaccine. So that’s at least one here in good ole socal) taking this long to actually make this work, for this many people is actually amazing.