What a mess. I assume there’s volunteer groups organising troops to help? Knock on doors and drive people to appointments? I was jollied to see that Hugh Bonneville - of Paddington and Downton Abbey fame - is a vaccine volunteer in his home village.
I don’t think it’s about the facility, or getting the vaccines to a given location. It’s getting people appointments. First-come, first-serve is just a disaster. You can’t expect the most vulnerable to wait in line for hours, camping a potential shot like tickets to a concert. But any method for making appointments has to grapple with tradeoffs between equity and efficiency. This is complicated by the fact that the people organizing the appointments don’t know how much vaccine they will get, when. And they have to make sure second shots can be administered reliably.
This could have been handled better, by starting planning earlier, but it’s an incredibly complicated logistical problem.
My GP got me my appointment. She wasn’t calling anyone, but when I called her the receptionist had the contacts to set up an appointment at the local hospital.
She also posted a downloadable form that had to be printed and filled out to the doctor’s website. She checked to be sure I could do that, otherwise they’d have kept a printout for me to pick up.
I’d still be waiting for my turn in line if not for my GP. I was on a list with the County Health Department and with an online clinic, but the hospitals were arranging things through GPs. Got my first today.
My county just announced that teachers are eligible. That could help my wife. The only thing is: There’s no place in the county that is actually vaccinating teachers.
Where do you live? Docs here–in fact, the county health department, too–are asking people not to call their docs about getting the vaccine, as docs have no part in the process. I called 3 of my docs, including my GP. All were getting deluged with calls; none could help me.
Congrats on getting an appointment!
My family practice doctor is affiliated with a hospital apparently trying to play by the rules and located in another vaccine district from where I live.
Communism American style seems more typical:
San Joaquin County, California. It was a private hospital that was giving the vaccines. I had only called the County Hospital, so I don’t know if this one would have given appointments if called.
I had heard through the grapevine about other people who had gotten appointments through their GPs, so I called mine.
That’s so great. Here it seems like the objective is to head off desperate people at every juncture.
I feel like I somehow slipped through the cracks (in a good way).
When they started vaccinations in Los Angeles County, I figured, based on my age, health, and occupation, I was looking at an April date for my first vaccination.
But after the new year, they suddenly dropped the age limit to 65 and suddenly I was eligible. Still, I was ready to wait until April, so I didn’t do anything until about 3 weeks ago, hanging out on a Saturday, I decided to see if I could get an appointment. Having heard about chaotic conditions and long lines at the mass vaccination centers, I poked around the website and looked at smaller sites near me (mostly pharmacies).
Like others have reported, before I could see available appointment times I had to fill out a form every time I selected a site. Fortunately, FireFox does some autofill and once I had gone through the health questions once it was quick to go through them. I noodled around at this for about an hour or so and discovered “Appointments Available” at the main link to the site didn’t mean there were actually appointments available. So I gave up until the following weekend.
I went on the site the next weekend, checked a couple of nearby sites, then decided to try a bigger site (but not Dodger Stadium sized). I found one about 20 minutes away (a firehouse) and clicked in. This time, I had to register with a third party health management company (Carbon?). While it involved filling out the same information and creating a profile, username, and entering a texted confirmation code, I was fine with it because it meant I wouldn’t have to enter my information again when I tried again (I assumed I wouldn’t get an appointment). To my surprise, there were appointments available all week. I pulled up my calendar for the week and had a two hour block of free time on Wednesday, so I selected that time and it went through! I got an email and a text and it appeared in the app I downloaded (I wasn’t instructed or guided to download an app, I just assumed, rightly, that given the way I registered and the GUI online, they had an app).
My only complaint about the vaccination itself was that the app instructed me to not show up early but the line (of cars- it is drive-through) meant that it was about 30 minutes after arrival that I actually checked in at the entrance to the vaccination center (and another hour, all of it spent in my car, before I got my shot).
All told, I spent 2-3 hours getting my appointment and another couple of hours keeping my appointment.
I also have to comment that there were a lot of (non-medical) workers keeping things running smoothly. It appeared that they were all with a non-profit call CORE, headed by Sean Penn, of all people!
My wife has some complicated health issues. For her COVID vaccination here in chaotic FL it was:
- Her treating hospital calls her to set her appointment for 3 days hence.
- We drive there at the appointed time, she hops out of car, goes inside, is shot 5 minutes later, waits 15 minutes, comes out, and we go get breakfast.
- Two weeks later we drive there at the appointed time, she hops out of car, goes inside, is shot 5 minutes later, waits 15 minutes, comes out, and we go get breakfast.
Despite her other issues, she had negligible reaction to the Pfizer vax. A little draggy on day 2 after the first shot, but otherwise nothing.
Would that my experience, and the rest of my fellow multiple million Floridiots, would be so simple. I figure my turn comes mid-summer.
You must be my neighbor. Stanislaus County here. Health Dept. has vax clinics on seemingly sporadic days and locations. Their web site publishes a weekly schedule. They DON’T mention that you need to have an appointment – I learned that helpful fact from hearsay. I picture mile-long lines of people waiting in line for hours just to be told they need an appointment. They are vaxxing down to my age group already, though.
My HMO is promising to contact me when they have enough doses to get down to my age group though. I have a hunch that may be another month or two. I think I would prefer getting it there. That County stuff seems a little haphazard to me.
They aren’t letting teachers get it in Indiana, but there’s talk that teachers will be soon. I work in a preschool, so I may count as a teacher, or not, I don’t know. It may be only public school and private K-12 teachers.
I wonder if getting a substitute teaching permit would get me bumped up?
FWIW, my friend who teaches Head Start just got inoculated through work, as a teacher. That’s NY, though; might not hold in Indiana.
That’s what I was thinking. Vaccinate at businesses, Walmarts, airports, bus stations.
I recently read that during a typical fall the US gives 3 million flu shots a day. We’re only giving 2 million covid shots. Seems like the give it to whoever wants it method is significantly more efficient…
So I live in a Chicago suburb. My wife and I are 59-60 w/ hypertension/asthma. My wife has been looking reasonably hard, and not having any luck.
This a.m. I was working in the yard, and my neighbor said his heathcare network - different than ours, emailed them to set up appts for next week. They are also approx 59-61, w/ no health condits worse than hypertension. They are driving into Chicago for their shots.
It really would be hard to find any 2 couples who are more similarly situated than the 2 of us. Just mind boggling that my wife has had difficulty actively seeking one, while next door they weren’t even looking but got invited out of the blue. What a fucked up system. Every man/woman for themself!
The barrier is supply of vaccine. Most everywhere they have plenty of willing bodies to receive the shots. Even with restrictions signups get filled quickly.
You can’t compare to flu shot administration. Flu vaccine supply is built up in advance.
You also can’t compare, because a lot of those flu shots are pediatric, and are administered at the pediatrician’s office during a well-child check-up, or an appointment for some other booster.
Once the initial crush is over, perhaps COVID shots will be released to PCP’s to administer, then people with chronic conditions who have been missed can get them at their check-ups for their medication reassessments.