Covid Vaccine Distribution

[simple girl]

It's amazing, I started using this vaccinespotter tool for Florida shortly after Simple Girl's post, and first there were only appointments in the very north. Then suddenly an hour ago, a large number of Winn Dixie stores in central and north Florida popped up and said they have appointments. I immediately went in, and could snatch two adjacent appointments a bit south of Orlando, about 100 miles north of here, next week around noontime for Moderna. While the location is not optimal, it will be quick to get up there on the Florida Turnpike, and afterwards have a nice leisurely drive back along the beach.

One thing I should warn about: the appointments were fading away literally as I was typing, and I wasn't prepared that I would have to enter the complete insurance information, so it was a bit hectic. Have all your insurance information ready before you pounce!

Oh, this makes me SOOOOOOO happy!!!!!!

Good point about having all of your insurance ready, etc. I experienced the same thing. Man, you have got to be FAST with entering your info! Great job scoring your vaccines! That will be a wonderful drive back along the beach, celebrating your first vaccine!

 

[JoeWras]

My hurricane relief group put out a call for volunteers to help with a pop up vaccine site in a nearby county that traditionally runs antivax. I'm actually out doing hurricane repair so I couldn't help. DW felt guilty about our sudden unexpected vaccination last weekend, so she answered the call to give back.

She did registration entering data outside in a parking lot while people waited in line, in their cars. 45 degree day. I'm proud of DW.

It was a NO appointment pop up! She said that business was brisk, with some people waiting up to 4 hours, and she got a tiny bit of gruff from some waiting although overall everyone was kind. She wasn't sure how many were turned away since she was far up the line. We have no idea how this was publicized.

The volunteer call came late yesterday. So it was really a quick pop up.

I guess the good news here is people came. And the authorities are getting bold enough to do this without it being complete chaos.

Take aways? Keep searching. More sites are coming online. And people are responding.

 

[stepford]

[Apologies for Very Long Post]

Adventures in California Vaccine Hunting.

The ending first: After searching around for about a week I was one of the lucky ones called from a pharmacy wait list for a "leftover" dose of the Moderna vaccine. This is a great relief, not only for the obvious health reasons, but also because I no longer have to consider the ugly moral dilemma of erroneously claiming a disability in order to get vaccinated. I doubt I would have gone that route, but I must admit I thought about it.


Now useful tips: I've haunted the various vaccine appointment websites for several weeks and gotten comfortable with when appointment slots become available. This didn't do me much good as I am still ineligible to receive the vaccine in CA, but allowed me to find appointments for some older friends and then for my DW (a teacher) as they became eligible. In so doing I found that the official myturn.ca.gov is not very useful except on Monday mornings between 6:30 and 7:30 when new appointments become available.

Far more effective is to use one of the vaccine finding web services:

vaccinefinder.org
vaccinespotter.org
or
www.goodrx.com/covid-19/vaccine

to identify pharmacies offering the vaccine. Then periodically checking the web sites of each pharmacy results in some appointment availability most days (early morning and late evening seem to be the best times to look). These appointments didn't do me much good directly owing to my ineligibility, but they showed me which pharmacies actually had the vaccine.

The next step was to call all of these pharmacies within a 15 mile radius and start asking about leftover vaccine doses due to appointment cancellations. Most places are friendly and business-like while a few are brusque since all have been getting lots of calls of this sort. In any case, expect to be shot down most of the time. While I never found a vaccination directly by cold calling, some pharmacies were willing to put me on their wait list. This was totally random. Some claimed they didn't have a list, or that only eligible customers could get on the list, but eventually after several days I was on 3 waiting lists out of about a dozen pharmacies called.

In surprisingly short order - a day after getting on the last list, that particular pharmacy had 6 extra doses at the end of the day, and started calling names off their wait list. I hastened over and got the 2nd to last one.

I've also monitored several vaccine hunting groups on Facebook and from what I've seen this was unusually fortunate. Many folks do eventually get called in for a shot off a pharmacy wait list, but the time between getting on the list and getting the call can more often be weeks rather than hours. Still this is often an effective approach and is worth pursuing.


The other effective approach I've seen in the Vax Hunter groups is to identify large medical facilities that are frequently giving out extra doses at the end of the day. In the Los Angeles area there are several places that have been doing this regularly and now have large daily lineups of the vaccine-hopeful. I didn't really feel like driving 50 miles then standing in line with 100s of my closest friends in the hopes of a shot, but many report this approach working and it's worth considering if one of the locations is convenient. There are specific Vax Hunter groups for most metro areas now and if you want to go that route they are the best source of this sort of info.

Or, I guess, you could just be patient. Vaccine availability will probably be widespread within 1-2 months. I didn't want to wait.

 

[Involuntary Retiree]

After following multiple FB groups that track when appointments are dropped at the various pharmacies, I logged into Rite Aid in the middle of the night and snagged two appointments.

Yup! The early bird indeed gets the worm in my state. Walmart and Sam's Club load their appointments at midnight, and I've managed to snag multiple appointments for family and friends when I've had trouble sleeping. Insomnia has some benefits.

 

[harllee]

I am thinking there is a book in all this--maybe called Vaccine Hunter. I am not a writer myself but John Grisham has a house a couple of blocks away and I am going to suggest this to him the next time I see him. He could throw in a black market, organized crime and some intrigue.

 

[regenaeb]

Hello!

Yes, some areas are definitely more challenging to get vaccines in Florida! I'm noticing that there are pockets where there is excess and pockets of scarcity. If someone can drive over an hour for their vaccine, generally it's not a huge issue. However, not everyone can do that, especially those who are older or are caring for someone they cannot leave for an extended period of time.

So, here are the FB groups I belong to:

South Florida COVID-19 Vaccine Info

Florida Under 65 High Risk COVID-19 Vaccination Discussion

Florida Vaccine Hunters (focused on "leftover" vaccines)

My tips for Florida vaccine searching:

1. CVS drops appointments typically in the early a.m., sometime between 5 and 6:30 a.m. (usually closer to 6, in my experience)
2. Walmart/Sam's drops appointments around midnight
3. Winn Dixie is unpredictable. Check multiple times a day.
4. Walgreens may have a specific drop time, not sure about that. You cannot book appointments for others on Walgreens, you have to book through your own account after registering; it populates your name. Even so, I had great luck spotting appointments, especially in the morning, for friends and then letting them know where to look (quickly!)
5. I just started using www.vaccinespotter.org. It's been great so far for finding Walmart, Winn Dixie, and CVS appointments (it looks for some others too, but note Walgreens blocks this tool so you have to look there separately). They tell you when the appt is, what the vaccine is, where, etc. It really saves time searching each of those individual sites. Be ready to open up the individual site to book (I keep tabs open for those sites when using the spotter tool.)
6. Publix - I know little about them, I have avoided it as I heard their system was frustrating at first. However, supposedly it is better now. Certain days are for J&J/teachers and others for the other priority groups, I believe. 7 a.m. drop time.

I hope this helps! I learned all of this from those FB groups. They have volunteers on these groups that will book for others, including staying up late ("The Night Owls"). So, if you are comfortable sharing your personal info, they will help you. It's been a lifesaver for those who are not tech savvy and do not have someone to help them. The groups also are great for telling you about popup sites or posting "vaccines are available at x/y/z right now!". That's extremely helpful! There are a ton of people who have been helped and just really want to pay it forward. It's very heartening to see.

Thank you for all the information. I will look at these and pass the information along. I was lucky enough to score my Mom and Uncle vaccines a couple of weeks ago, but they had to drive 3 hours one way to Ft. Lauderdale to get them. They were fine with it and just got the second dose last week and were very happy. I would hope at this point that other relatives would not have to drive so far. I will be there in about a month for a week long visit and if they have not already got a shots at that point, I guess I will be taking relatives to the mass vaccination site at Tampa. I hear they are walk up as long as eligible. Fingers crossed they can score the shots before then, so we can all be safe during my visit. Of course I will only be visiting them outside at a safe distance with masks. But if I have to drive them, I guess we will mask up and put the windows down in the car. Hope April is not too hot in Tampa Bay.

 

[MBAustin]

Texas opened up to 50+ on Monday (although some of the large hub sites near us are still getting through their 65+ wait lists before going broader). I got an e-mail Tuesday afternoon from UT Health where I had pre-registered quite a while ago, saying they had changed systems and I needed to register again. Fortunately I was very quick to see the e-mail, registered, logged back in, and immediately was able to schedule Pfizer #1 for Wednesday afternoon.

Although everyone was very friendly and it was well organized, it's not as pleasant an experience as DH had at the Austin Public Health site. You have to park in a (free but very full) garage a couple of blocks away from the vaccine site (gym). Then you wait in line outside (about 20 minutes) before going inside, where you wait 6' apart in a snaking queue before finalizing the paperwork and scheduling shot #2. After that it was very quick to get the shot, then you sit 6' apart in the middle of the gym for the 15 minute wait. I would have been much more comfortable if ALL of the line queuing was outside, although I could feel that they had strong ventilation going on in the gym. All in all, it was fine and I'm glad to be halfway done. Sore arm started during the night but not bad enough to keep me from bagging more dead plants this morning.

 

[Amethyst]

I am not a competitive or "scoring" sort of person. All I can say is, there is something seriously wrong with a "system" that causes people to have to go to great lengths and inconvenience to try to "score" a vaccine that
a) the President says is his highest priority
b) our tax dollars are paying for
c) the media tell us that huge numbers of people refuse to get.

 

[ivinsfan]

I am not a competitive or "scoring" sort of person. All I can say is, there is something seriously wrong with a "system" that causes people to have to go to great lengths and inconvenience to try to "score" a vaccine that
a) the President says is his highest priority
b) our tax dollars are paying for
c) the media tell us that huge numbers of people refuse to get.

I don't personally know many people that are refusing to get vaccinated. It will be interesting when all is said and done to see our final national number of adults vaccinated.



I do know several people that generally do not get flu vaccines, they want their immune system to take care of the flu naturally. I don't know if they will get Covid vaccinated I haven't asked. I don't think that attitude is anti-vac per say.

 

[athena53]

I do know several people that generally do not get flu vaccines, they want their immune system to take care of the flu naturally. I don't know if they will get Covid vaccinated I haven't asked. I don't think that attitude is anti-vac per se.

I'm in that category- I rarely bother with flu shots. This year I got both a flu shot and a pneumonia immunization- figured this would be a very bad time to get a serious case of either one and land in the hospital or even Urgent Care.

OTOH, I jumped at my first opportunity to get the COVID vaccine and when my immune system has settled down after that (say, in a couple of months) I'll get the newer Shingles vaccine- I got the old one but it was almost 7 years ago.

It's all a balance of risks of the disease vs. risks of the vaccine. For COVID and Shingles, the vaccine seems to be the better choice.

 

[Aerides]

5. I just started using www.vaccinespotter.org. It's been great so far for finding Walmart, Winn Dixie, and CVS appointments (it looks for some others too, but note Walgreens blocks this tool so you have to look there separately).

I'm not yet eligible, but I've had this site open in a tab since you posted it yesterday. At any given time there are available spots somewhere in Florida. Occasionally within an hour's drive, often within 3. Seems the i-4 corridor and up is the place to go. But for SE FLA (Palm Beach, Broward, Miami-Dade counties) it's a whole load of unavailable-dots.

Either way, I will be sitting on this tab from 12:01 am the day I am eligible!

 

[Leo1277]

I'm not yet eligible, but I've had this site open in a tab since you posted it yesterday. At any given time there are available spots somewhere in Florida. Occasionally within an hour's drive, often within 3. Seems the i-4 corridor and up is the place to go. But for SE FLA (Palm Beach, Broward, Miami-Dade counties) it's a whole load of unavailable-dots.

Either way, I will be sitting on this tab from 12:01 am the day I am eligible!

Indeed the situation is rather strange in Florida, after 24 hours of observation, it's clear there is a huge imbalance between the north and the south, with the I4 corridor acting as a demarcation line; a screenshot from a few minutes ago is attached. And from my experience so far, if it says "status unknown", checking with perhaps a dozen of the "unknown" places directly on their sites never found any appointments there. So stick with what is shown as green.

Connected to this, I have now changed reservations to something slightly more convenient; but just as a reminder to all of us, if you do this, make sure to release the other reservation again. After I did this, within a few minutes I could see my original reservation pop up again on the site, it's quite impressive. Unfortunately releasing reservations is very store dependent, with Winn Dixie it is just a web link, but with Walmart it requires calling in to the pharmacy where the shot is scheduled, and they are notorious for not answering their phones even in the best of times.

 

[karen1972]

They opened up for high risk yesterday, Monday there were hundreds of appointments no one was signing up for as people patiently waited for it to open up and follow the rules. Now there isn't a slot across the whole state. Hoping people actually show up for their shots and they get the queue down quickly. I had 1 slot show up yesterday and had to do 2 clicks and someone beat me to it and now they pushed all appointments with the storms coming in. Hoping next week even if we have to drive we can get one. They appear to only be posting 36 hours out, I think to prevent people from signing up to multiple which was wasting a ton of doses.

 

[MissMolly]

KY opened up to Phase 1c:

As of March 15, the Kentucky COVID-19 vaccination eligibility phase is 1c. Phase 1c is now expanded to include all persons ages 16 or older with any medical or behavioral health condition or conditions that the CDC reports ‘are’ or ‘might be’ at increased risk of severe COVID-19 illness. Priority: remaining Phase 1a and 1b persons, Phase 1c persons aged 60 and over. Visit kycovid19.ky.gov and click on the gold vaccine bar, or call toll-free 855-598-2246, for more info or to schedule appointments. Please continue to be patient if you are not able to get an appointment immediately, as vaccine supplies remain LIMITED.

 

[RetireBy90]

VA has opened up to group 1C

VDH COVID-19 Vaccine Phase 1c In Depth


While the supply is limited, COVID-19 vaccine will be provided to specific groups of people over a number of phases. Virginia guidance was adapted from Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommendations that aim to (1) decrease COVID-19 deaths and serious disease, (2) preserve functioning of society, and (3) reduce the extra burden COVID-19 is having on people already facing disparities.
Everyone who lives or works in Virginia should pre-register at vaccinate.virginia.gov or 877-VAX-IN-VA.

Virginia’s Phase 1c: Vaccinate Other Essential Workers


Other Essential Workers


Definition of Other Essential Workers
In Phase 1b, frontline essential workers were included. Vaccination will be allocated to additional essential workers in Phase 1c. These workers are in sectors essential to the functioning of society and/or are at higher risk of exposure to SARS-CoV-2. Other Essential Workers include the following. If there is not sufficient supply to vaccinate everyone in Phase 1c at the same time, local health districts should vaccinate the Other Essential Worker groups in vaccination planning in the following order:

1. Energy
2. Water, wastewater, and waste removal workers (includes recycling removal workers)
3. Housing and Construction
4. Food Service
5. Transportation and Logistics
6. Institutions of Higher Education Faculty/Staff
7. Finance
8. Information Technology & Communication
9. Media
10. Legal Services
11. Public Safety (engineers)
12. Other Public Health Workers

 

[Amethyst]

Could people be using software to "snipe" vaccine sites?

Just seems like it would be easy for the average coder to write a program to keep hitting on vaccinefinder.org and the other vaccine-compilation sites, rapidly page through the questions and grab an appointment, faster than the rest of us humans who just use eyes and fingers.

I am not such a coder, unfortunately.

Snipers is why I quit using Ebay.

 

[Amethyst]

Relative in VA, who is over 70, obese, diabetic, has COPD etc., just got her first shot. Poor thing is ecstatic that in just a few more weeks she can go out of the house to somewhere other than nearest child's house.

VA has opened up to group 1C

 

[Leo1277]

Just seems like it would be easy for the average coder to write a program to keep hitting on vaccinefinder.org and the other vaccine-compilation sites, rapidly page through the questions and grab an appointment, faster than the rest of us humans who just use eyes and fingers.

I am not such a coder, unfortunately.

Snipers is why I quit using Ebay.

Oh absolutely, this would be possible and not all that difficult. I did a lot of coding when I was younger, and now mostly have others do it for our work group, but (without having tried it and without interest in trying either) I expect I could put such a thing together in reasonable time, and so could many others. The thing is a bit messy though because each provider has different information they want, and so you'd have to make a custom tool for each provider.

Now, eBay sniping even for profit is legal even if it's not quite moral, but I doubt a tool to grab vaccine appointments especially for compensation would be. So the incentive to do this on a large scale like auctionsniper for eBay isn't there, and it's too much work to put together just for you and your family.

But having said that, from what I see so far, when new doses show up on that site, some of them are for individual doses likely from somebody releasing an appointment, which are indeed hard to grab. But the majority of the "dumps" are large groups of dozens of doses at a given location, and then, if you recognize it early enough, the manual way is still sufficient to get through. But as Koolau would say, YMMV.

 

[simple girl]

Indeed the situation is rather strange in Florida, after 24 hours of observation, it's clear there is a huge imbalance between the north and the south, with the I4 corridor acting as a demarcation line; a screenshot from a few minutes ago is attached. And from my experience so far, if it says "status unknown", checking with perhaps a dozen of the "unknown" places directly on their sites never found any appointments there. So stick with what is shown as green.

Connected to this, I have now changed reservations to something slightly more convenient; but just as a reminder to all of us, if you do this, make sure to release the other reservation again. After I did this, within a few minutes I could see my original reservation pop up again on the site, it's quite impressive. Unfortunately releasing reservations is very store dependent, with Winn Dixie it is just a web link, but with Walmart it requires calling in to the pharmacy where the shot is scheduled, and they are notorious for not answering their phones even in the best of times.

It's really quite curious, isn't it? I do not understand the distribution decisions being made here in Florida. Obviously somebody needs to fix this for those in the gray zones!

Glad you found something more convenient and that you were able to cancel your original reservations so conveniently! That's really cool you could see the slot open right up on that website. It shows that tool works really well!

 

[Popeye]

I am not a competitive or "scoring" sort of person. All I can say is, there is something seriously wrong with a "system" that causes people to have to go to great lengths and inconvenience to try to "score" a vaccine that
a) the President says is his highest priority
b) our tax dollars are paying for
c) the media tell us that huge numbers of people refuse to get.

In my PA county you have a choice. You can sign up with the county board of health and be patient as they work slowly through the list. They contact you when it is time to make your appointment. Currently they are serving those who signed up January 20th. Unfortunately this is still in group 1A. I think this is partly due to the age and condition of folks. You can see the totals of how many signed up. It’s like 30% of the population is in group 1A.

Otherwise you can make it your life’s work and become a vaccine hunter checking pharmacy and hospital websites all night long. Some have great success and others struggle just like you see in the posts here. I think the patient folks see the success stories of the hunter types and lose their patience. You should see the posts on NextDoor!

 

[Leo1277]

It's really quite curious, isn't it? I do not understand the distribution decisions being made here in Florida. Obviously somebody needs to fix this for those in the gray zones! ...

It's indeed very curious. One theory that a neighbor floated is that the north is very conservative compared to the southeast, and that population is far less interested in vaccination. Whether this is the main reason or at least a contributor for this discrepancy I don't know.

But in the big picture, I just hope that what we are seeing right now will serve as part of the learning curve for a system for the next pandemic when (let's hope not "if") Covid-19 is conquered. We have all kinds of national alert systems, there's the National Weather Service that has localized information that is continuously being updated, and of course armed forces also operate at the national level (and not as a "Winn-Dixie Army" and a separate "Publix Army") and with tools and logistics that are much more sophisticated than anything we are bringing to bear against Covid. So with only minimal effort, it should be possible to develop a much better defense system including vaccination logistics than what we have right now for the next time around.

 

[Gumby]

Tomorrow, Connecticut is opening up eligibility to everyone 45+. On April 5th, they'll open to everyone 16+. They've done a very good job of throttling the eligibility, so that as one group reaches the inflection point of demand a new group is opened up. Our governor has likened the process to the boarding call for airplanes - they call the next set of rows as the flow starts to thin, so that they have a steady flow of people boarding. They don't wait for every last person in the group ahead to be seated. Nor do they call every row at once, since that creates chaos at the gate. So far the process is resulting in extremely good rates of vaccination here. At present, 33% of all people 16+ have had a least their first dose. I expect that ~75% of the adults in the state will be fully vaccinated by mid-June.

 

[Amethyst]

I can envision a "pandemic National Guard," with members who train periodically just as military reservists do. They would need to be compensated, as most of them have day jobs.

The President was talking about mobilizing everyone who is able to give injections - veterinarians were mentioned. Hey, if somebody can give a Chihuahua a shot without the poor lil thing climbing the wall, I'm happy to get my shot from them too.

It's indeed very curious. One theory that a neighbor floated is that the north is very conservative compared to the southeast, and that population is far less interested in vaccination. Whether this is the main reason or at least a contributor for this discrepancy I don't know.

But in the big picture, I just hope that what we are seeing right now will serve as part of the learning curve for a system for the next pandemic when (let's hope not "if") Covid-19 is conquered. We have all kinds of national alert systems, there's the National Weather Service that has localized information that is continuously being updated, and of course armed forces also operate at the national level (and not as a "Winn-Dixie Army" and a separate "Publix Army") and with tools and logistics that are much more sophisticated than anything we are bringing to bear against Covid. So with only minimal effort, it should be possible to develop a much better defense system including vaccination logistics than what we have right now for the next time around.

 

[ivinsfan]

I can envision a "pandemic National Guard," with members who train periodically just as military reservists do. They would need to be compensated, as most of them have day jobs.

The President was talking about mobilizing everyone who is able to give injections - veterinarians were mentioned. Hey, if somebody can give a Chihuahua a shot without the poor lil thing climbing the wall, I'm happy to get my shot from them too.

I think this is a day late and a dollar short.. I was hoping they would do something like this in early Feb, but it never happened. Nothing like this is even in the pipeline ASIK. You know what else ticks me off, getting the vaccine is an national emergency, except on Sundays. Basically vaccines around here only go out 6 days a week. If they have doses and trained professionals why on earth can't they vaccine 7 days a week.

 

[Amethyst]

Saturdays? You get Saturdays?

I agree with all of your points. Things might be changing now, though; glacially because it's the government, but changing all the same...As Jean Shepherd's mother was wont to say, "Well, we'll see."

I think this is a day late and a dollar short.. I was hoping they would do something like this in early Feb, but it never happened. Nothing like this is even in the pipeline ASIK. You know what else ticks me off, getting the vaccine is an national emergency, except on Sundays. Basically vaccines around here only go out 6 days a week. If they have doses and trained professionals why on earth can't they vaccine 7 days a week.