I don’t know about that - it would be better in some ways if there was a single website/phone number to make appointments statewide instead of separate websites/phone numbers for state-run facilities/local health department-run facilities/pharmacies. But I’m not so sure it would have actually saved anybody much time if the same number of people were trying to connect through fewer websites/phone numbers
I don’t think statewide is the way to go; in many states some locations are a day’s drive away from others. I’d go by county or city, in the case of large cities possibly by smaller sections; allow getting on waitlists either online or by phone – but the same waitlist whether by phone or computer – and provide funding for enough people to answer the phones.
Age, relevant medical conditions, and degree of exposure could all be left with the name on the waitlist.
We don’t know yet whether being vaccinated means one becomes less able to spread it. We only know, at this point, that being vaccinated means one is far less likely to become symptomatic, and also much less likely to die or have an extremely serious case even if symptomatic.
I may not have been clear- what I encountered when trying to make appointments for both myself and my husband ( I was eligible about a month before he was ) was one website/phone number for all NYS run vaccination sites and a separate website/phone number for NYC run vaccination sites. There was no one place where I could make an appointment at any site that had available appointments regardless of who was running it. As far as I know, the same thing happened through the rest of the state - you could only make appts for state-run facilities through the state DOH contact and only for locally run facilities through the local contact. It would have been easier in some respects to have been able to go to a single website/phone number and make an appointment wherever one was available rather than having to go back back and forth between two different ones trying to get through and find an appointment - but it wouldn’t necessarily have taken less of my time.
It’s always been a good bet that it does, and the data from Israel is confirming it.
I’m not being given two websites. I’m being given more like eight websites and a couple of phone numbers. If it were as simple as one website for the state-run and another for all the local sites I wouldn’t be anywhere near this grumbly.
If NYC has one central site to check for everything being offered locally, more power to them – though a waitlist would be better than ‘everybody keep checking every five minutes if you want any hope of an appointment’. But no, that’s not what’s happening in the rest of the state.
Good news; hope it’s true. Article’s reporting on a Twitter report of a study not yet ready for peer review.
My mom and uncle were eligible due to their age. Their neighborhood organization coordinated with local urgent care clinics, to get a list of all of the elderly in the neighborhood, and to get them all appointments. The actual shots were given at a nearby rec center.
I was eligible due to my job (at a school). I don’t know who was ultimately doing the scheduling, but I was contacted about it by the school. The shots were given at the Educational Services Center of Northeast Ohio, which is apparently where most of the schools are going. Everyone at the school I’m at was within a 3-hour window.
I will say that the operation at the ESC was extremely well-coordinated. Each individual was assigned a five-minute time window, and they achieved it. From in the door to out was less than 20 minutes, and that was even including the mandatory 15 minute wait to watch for adverse reactions.
Try this. You have to fill in your state and hopefully you will get back some centralized info about websites/phone numbers. It helped my sister in Iowa, where the vaccinating is whack a doodle in the extreme.
How COVID-19 Vaccines Get to You
Updated Feb. 17, 2021
Languages
https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/vaccines/distributing.html
I just found out that my 95 year old uncle, who has diabetes and various other health issues, has been unable to make an appointment. His wife, who is several years younger and in better health, got it weeks ago. They live in Connecticut. This has our family very frustrated. We think they must have somehow lost his record because no way should he still be waiting.
From that site:
Vaccines are available at pharmacies, hospitals and through local health departments statewide – please contact your provider of choice to schedule your vaccine appointment.
Additionally, there is a network of State-run sites distributing vaccine statewide
Like I said, a whole mess of different places to try. I do try a batch of them from time to time; none of them ever have any appointments, except that sometimes the state site has appointments at a site or two that are nowhere near me. One hospital group has robocalled me to say specifically that they don’t have any appointment for me and have no idea when they will.
I did sign up for an email update list from a box that popped up on that site; will see if that produces anything.
Where in Connecticut are your uncle and aunt? Because there is more than one scheduling process, depending on which provider they get the vaccine from. My parents, for example, got the vaccine from Griffin Hospital (which is in Derby, although they received the vaccine at a location in Shelton) and Griffin, along with some other hospitals, uses the VAMS system. Others, like Stamford Health or Yale-New Haven or CVS, have their own scheduling systems. So if possible, they should try working with more than one. Perhaps you can help them register? Note that each may need their own email address. My father really doesn’t use email so they had to create a new one for this process.