I have gotten my grandparents, my parents, myself and my wife vaccinated in Jan without breaking any rules, having any connections, or bribing anyone. You'll pay what economists call a "search cost".
-I have had *great* success with an Android app called Web Alert. You put in the URL of a website you want to track and how often you want to check it for changes. This allowed me to be notified as soon as 2 pharmacy chains launched their scheduling system as well as the county websites that randomly open and close their registration/scheduling windows. There's a free version as well as a paid one that is worth it.
-In Ohio, our large rollout started on Jan 15th for 1b (80+) and the majority of doses have been allocated to pharmacy chains like Kroger. The state did a surprise change up and emailed pharmacies at the beginning of this week saying they were not allowed to vaccinate 1a healthcare workers and could ONLY do so for 1b 80+ (and threatened them with revoking their vaccine provider status if they messed up). They subsequently cancelled my mom's appointment (she's 1a) and indicated when they spoke to her that they were terrified of being shut out. For the short term, they will likely prefer to let doses expire rather than use it for someone under 80.
-Although the article mentioned early days in the vaccine cycle are good, the first several days probably aren't. I went to Kroger on their very first day and they told me that any extra doses would be given to pharmacy staff since none of them were vaccinated yet.
-You might strike out if your county/locality has had bad press for being lenient with distribution. In my case, I went to the drive through clinic for my city's health department and was the only one who showed up for the possibility of an end of day dose, so I was feeling hopeful. 30 minutes after talking to a friendly staff member who told me where to park and wait, the HBIC came out and was quite firm and.. not so friendly. She said they have a strict protocal for extra doses, cannot give it to someone like me, and I would not improve my luck if I showed up there every day (perhaps she had dealt with someone else like that, but I was a little insulted by that last part). When she finished talking, a voice came over her walkie talkie and said "we have three extra" and she replied "ok, we'll start calling." A little background on this - my city developed a sign up for the first 500 people who were teachers, police, etc. who were willing to show up for extra vaccine doses if they got a call. There was a slight scandal when the press found out that a local 30something CEO had added himself to the list and was not qualified. I'm guessing the harsh response I encountered was partially due to them tightening up to avoid the possibility for more bad headlines.
Thank you so much for that detailed response! I think you've got it right on all fronts. CA and OH are both behind right now, which is making it harder. Too many health workers still left to go.
Thanks again for the update, first I've heard from OH!
It worked! But not at all the way you wrote above. Different kind of government inefficiency. I went into an urgent care at 4:40p on Friday, stood in line for 15 min, and used Spencer's script. I added that I'm in group 1C because I teach at a university. She said they never have extra doses, because they have a call list already.
She added me to the list, but then asked, "You're a teacher?"
"At a university."
She glanced at her colleague, and said, "Let's put you down for Sunday."
"I don't want to take anyone's place in line."
"Don't worry. How's Sunday at 2:15?"
"Perfect."
I thought, listen lady, I'm like 98% sure you're wrong about this, but far be it from me to tell you how to do your job.
In addition to "be better than a trash can," a more general moral to the story emerges: bureaucracy is leaky in unpredictable ways. If you're present, it might leak on you.
I'm sorry to hear that, thank you so much for your report and I hope you don't feel I've wasted your time with these suggestions. In the last couple days, I have heard really terrible things about trying to get vax in CA on any front. I think their system was so far behind and needs to get up and running for awhile and at least get through vaccinating their medical personnel.
Please report back if any of you have success, but so far I have heard many successes outside of CA and -no- successes with this strategy inside of the big CA cities. I hope things turn around for you soon!
Emma, do you have info on how to find a list of vaccination sites in the Bay Area? I live here too and want to try... but was unable to find vaccination sites, just articles about future sites that haven't opened yet.
I think I know the household in question. Note that most of the 19 locations in question were closed for the weekend, so this isn't as large an update as 'we failed at 20 different locations' might suggest.
Didn't work in Seattle. I went in for the last timeslot with my grandmother who was scheduled to be vaccinated and asked the docs if there's a chance I could get it to avoid spoilage. The answer was a clear "no".
I've decided to wait for my official turn in April/May.
Do you know how possible it is to get a second dose using this method? And is it still worth it if you can only get the first dose and have no plan for getting the second? Thanks for the writeup!
I tried this in NYC today and it didn't quite work. I'm unsure if this was because of the state's penalties for vaccinating non-eligible people scared the staff straight, or if it was because that was the first day the center was open and maybe the staff hadn't yet experienced the pain of throwing away doses.
I'd be curious to hear if other people can make this work in NYC, to get a sense of how much the state penalties are a factor.
Also, did you try multiple clinics? The first one I went to said no. Then I tried a second one that same evening, and it worked. Granted, this wasn't in NYC, but for me I had to try two places.
Hi Suzie, I found this post because you retweeted. Would you mind sharing which clinic you had luck with in Los Angeles? Assuming you did this in LA. Thank you!
NY did impose those horrible penalties early on, and it is possible that they still linger in the minds of the vax-givers. I'm hearing similar in the big CA cities, which is sad because I think most readers of this (rationalists, effective altruists, etc) live in CA and NY which might be particularly bad spots right now.
What I can tell you is that a friend of mine in NJ did have success on their first try yesterday after reading this article. Given that I don't think states are imposing a residency requirement (at least none that I've checked!) perhaps you can hop the border.
Keep me and the others here updated, and good luck!
A few notes and suggestions from Ohio:
-I have had *great* success with an Android app called Web Alert. You put in the URL of a website you want to track and how often you want to check it for changes. This allowed me to be notified as soon as 2 pharmacy chains launched their scheduling system as well as the county websites that randomly open and close their registration/scheduling windows. There's a free version as well as a paid one that is worth it.
-In Ohio, our large rollout started on Jan 15th for 1b (80+) and the majority of doses have been allocated to pharmacy chains like Kroger. The state did a surprise change up and emailed pharmacies at the beginning of this week saying they were not allowed to vaccinate 1a healthcare workers and could ONLY do so for 1b 80+ (and threatened them with revoking their vaccine provider status if they messed up). They subsequently cancelled my mom's appointment (she's 1a) and indicated when they spoke to her that they were terrified of being shut out. For the short term, they will likely prefer to let doses expire rather than use it for someone under 80.
-Although the article mentioned early days in the vaccine cycle are good, the first several days probably aren't. I went to Kroger on their very first day and they told me that any extra doses would be given to pharmacy staff since none of them were vaccinated yet.
-You might strike out if your county/locality has had bad press for being lenient with distribution. In my case, I went to the drive through clinic for my city's health department and was the only one who showed up for the possibility of an end of day dose, so I was feeling hopeful. 30 minutes after talking to a friendly staff member who told me where to park and wait, the HBIC came out and was quite firm and.. not so friendly. She said they have a strict protocal for extra doses, cannot give it to someone like me, and I would not improve my luck if I showed up there every day (perhaps she had dealt with someone else like that, but I was a little insulted by that last part). When she finished talking, a voice came over her walkie talkie and said "we have three extra" and she replied "ok, we'll start calling." A little background on this - my city developed a sign up for the first 500 people who were teachers, police, etc. who were willing to show up for extra vaccine doses if they got a call. There was a slight scandal when the press found out that a local 30something CEO had added himself to the list and was not qualified. I'm guessing the harsh response I encountered was partially due to them tightening up to avoid the possibility for more bad headlines.
Thank you so much for that detailed response! I think you've got it right on all fronts. CA and OH are both behind right now, which is making it harder. Too many health workers still left to go.
Thanks again for the update, first I've heard from OH!
It worked! But not at all the way you wrote above. Different kind of government inefficiency. I went into an urgent care at 4:40p on Friday, stood in line for 15 min, and used Spencer's script. I added that I'm in group 1C because I teach at a university. She said they never have extra doses, because they have a call list already.
She added me to the list, but then asked, "You're a teacher?"
"At a university."
She glanced at her colleague, and said, "Let's put you down for Sunday."
"I don't want to take anyone's place in line."
"Don't worry. How's Sunday at 2:15?"
"Perfect."
I thought, listen lady, I'm like 98% sure you're wrong about this, but far be it from me to tell you how to do your job.
In addition to "be better than a trash can," a more general moral to the story emerges: bureaucracy is leaky in unpredictable ways. If you're present, it might leak on you.
My 71-year old spouse and I (recently 65) did that.
We got there at 4:20 on a Friday, told them we didn’t have an appointment, but would like a vaccine.
We got it! The peeps at Methodist hospital Houston were so kind about it all.
That is so great to hear!
Great post. I'm ttoo anxious to try it, but sounds very feasible
My household tried 20 locations in the SF Bay Area today (ones that are confirmed to be offering vaccinations) and were unsuccessful at each one.
I'm sorry to hear that, thank you so much for your report and I hope you don't feel I've wasted your time with these suggestions. In the last couple days, I have heard really terrible things about trying to get vax in CA on any front. I think their system was so far behind and needs to get up and running for awhile and at least get through vaccinating their medical personnel.
Please report back if any of you have success, but so far I have heard many successes outside of CA and -no- successes with this strategy inside of the big CA cities. I hope things turn around for you soon!
Emma, do you have info on how to find a list of vaccination sites in the Bay Area? I live here too and want to try... but was unable to find vaccination sites, just articles about future sites that haven't opened yet.
https://www.vaccinateca.com/
I think I know the household in question. Note that most of the 19 locations in question were closed for the weekend, so this isn't as large an update as 'we failed at 20 different locations' might suggest.
Didn't work in Seattle. I went in for the last timeslot with my grandmother who was scheduled to be vaccinated and asked the docs if there's a chance I could get it to avoid spoilage. The answer was a clear "no".
I've decided to wait for my official turn in April/May.
Do you know how possible it is to get a second dose using this method? And is it still worth it if you can only get the first dose and have no plan for getting the second? Thanks for the writeup!
As mentioned above, for all of us who did it, they schedule the second one when they give you the first, so there's no need to do it twice.
I tried this in NYC today and it didn't quite work. I'm unsure if this was because of the state's penalties for vaccinating non-eligible people scared the staff straight, or if it was because that was the first day the center was open and maybe the staff hadn't yet experienced the pain of throwing away doses.
I'd be curious to hear if other people can make this work in NYC, to get a sense of how much the state penalties are a factor.
Also, did you try multiple clinics? The first one I went to said no. Then I tried a second one that same evening, and it worked. Granted, this wasn't in NYC, but for me I had to try two places.
Hi Suzie, I found this post because you retweeted. Would you mind sharing which clinic you had luck with in Los Angeles? Assuming you did this in LA. Thank you!
Sorry, I got vaccinated in Indiana! Wish I could help on the LA front.
NY did impose those horrible penalties early on, and it is possible that they still linger in the minds of the vax-givers. I'm hearing similar in the big CA cities, which is sad because I think most readers of this (rationalists, effective altruists, etc) live in CA and NY which might be particularly bad spots right now.
What I can tell you is that a friend of mine in NJ did have success on their first try yesterday after reading this article. Given that I don't think states are imposing a residency requirement (at least none that I've checked!) perhaps you can hop the border.
Keep me and the others here updated, and good luck!
Yep, I just commented the story.
Great post! What times were common times for the end of vaccination? Have found end times difficult to come by.
I've seen 4pm, 5pm, 8pm, and 10pm in my experience!
Thanks a ton! Have you seen them operate on weekends?