scrubbedexpat091

With few exceptions they are doing it strictly by here, so it seems to be more orderly and they can control doses better, but I imagine there is still some waste. We have centralized vaccine points at the moment, they have chosen not to go the community pharmacy route yet, easier to distribute to centralized locations.

I should be able to get my first dose in June or July though if things go to plan.

Derrygal

I had my second Moderna shot late yesterday afternoon. Took today off work and slept for about 9 hours last night. Felt okay when I got up Spent the morning on the sofa reading and watching Britbox. However, starting to feel very tired now and a little feverish with chills, so think I shall just go back to bed. Hopefully I will be fine by tomorrow. I'd much rather feel like this for a short period than get Covid. Looking forward to a nice Easter with my family and 4 grandchildren

lansbury

Just had a call from the fire department, scheduled my 2nd shoot for 9am on the 22nd. At 11:40 I have a prostrate exam, so an interesting morning. Jabbed at both ends.

Steerpike

I just posted this on the 'TIO' Covid-19 site, but since this is a US-specific page, I'll put a link here too -

https://britishexpats.com/forum/take.../#post12982678

Basically, I was able to find a vaccine appointment using the site linked in that post when the State and County sites had nothing (for a healthy person, 55-64 years old) in AZ.

VaccineFinder - Search for COVID-19 vaccine locations

To be clearer, The site above showed that Walmart was offering vaccines, but had no openings. But that was enough to clue me in that Walmart may have something on their own website, which is what I tried, and I got an appointment almost immediately. So the moral of the story seems to be, try 50 different ways to get an appointment if you are determined to get an appointment soon! Don't be put off if some website suggests nothing available; keep trying!

sid nv

We had our 1st Moderna shots today. No joy with booking appointments with pharmacies offering vaccinations, so opted for a mass vaccination event. The first available event was for Johnson and Johnson, but anything with Johnson in the name has got to be dodgy, right?
The event was held at a big hall that used to be used for jumble sales, and now manned by military and FEMA personnel - all very organised and efficient. I was half expecting a military-style jab with syringe punched in using a clenched fist. I couldn't look as I have been known to faint at the sight of a needle, but it was actually completely painless. This differs from my childhood recollection of injections. Perhaps needle diameters are finer than they used to be. Although I did read somewhere that the trick with jabs is let the arm go completely limp, as tensing up can cause difficulty with the needle penetrating muscle.
Not that I have any muscles to speak of. Moving a computer mouse around on a mat all day does not do much for one's muscle tone.

Steerpike

Would be helpful to know your age (range) - over 65?

I told three friends this week in the 55+ group about my success in AZ, and they all got appointments at Walmart next week! I just re-checked the official "Maricopa County" website, and even now - 3-4 days after my original discovery that Walmart had appointments - they are not showing a single availability on the County site; they don't even have Walmart listed as a possible source. This just reinforces the idea that there's no easy way to find the vaccine, and the responsibility is clearly with the individual to go find it; not much 'outreach' is going on.

sid nv

Age 65+.

It was not obvious to me that COVID vaccine was now available. The first we knew about this was when out on our local trail we met a lady that we often meet out walking her collie, and she told us she had received her shots at the pharmacy. On returning home, I investigate and since I am on the mailing list for the State Governors's weekly newsletter (no idea how he got my email address, but anyway), I take a look at this communique and indeed there is a paragraph concerning vaccine with a link to a website. This website has drop-down boxes for each county, so on clicking on my county I see links to 3 x pharmacies offering vaccines (including Walmart). Of these three, only Walgreens has availability, but after selecting a date and time for the 1st shot, the Walgreens page then moves on to the 2nd shot for which there is no availability, so no appointment is made.
Reading further down the county-specific rollout plan, I see there is a link to booking via a Health Center. This website informs me that appointment requests are unavailable. So no further forward.

After a few days of getting nowhere, I re-read the rollout plan article and discover that at the bottom of a long list of eligible recipients, there is a link to a website less than helpfully titled "Visit the website". So I click on this, and now find myself on the local county health service appointment booking service. Here there is a link titled 'appointment resources for seniors 65+', which is a PDF document download which basically tells me to click on the link on the same page to the left of the link I just clicked on. Which takes me to another website operated by appointy.com. But here there are appointments in abundance! So we finally get booked in. It looks like they are processing 40 people every 15 minutes, so around 160 people per hour.

Perhaps this labyrinth of links and websites is some sort of test to see who deserves to be vaccinated. I imagine quite a few 65+ residents will have been consumed by the Minotaur.

So finally we have a confirmed appointment. We duly noted a request to not turn up early, and being the obedient sticklers for rules we arrived at the appointed hour, only to find ourselves at the end of a line of 40 people queuing outside who have clearly abused this request. Never mind, it is pleasant weather if a bit chilly. There was a fair bit of standing in line and form filling, but on checking the time at exit I see 30 minutes has passed, so quite acceptable.

tom169

Well I am booked in to receive my Moderna vax on Wednesday. Found success in a local rural county that doesn't believe in Covid.

robtuck

Georgia has expanded eligible residents today, which has provided me with a day of fighting the Walgreens website and customer support (it seems to have booked a 2nd shot and not first but won't cancel the 2nd and Wallgreens can't see it), registering for multiple other options that will "get back to me", being irritated by Kroger and Walmart's inability to update the eligible groups to match the State and then looking sadly at a few other Pharmacies that are fully booked. None of that would be quite so frustrating if it wasn't for the fact that Georgia sits squarely at the bottom in terms of % of available vaccines used.

There are days where I miss the NHS. On the plus side, my parents have both been vaccinated in the UK (one has both shots, the other one down and scheduled for the 2nd in April).

scrubbedexpat099

2nd is the same as the first and gets you most of the way.

robtuck

Which would be fine, apart from the fact it hasn't actually even scheduled that, just the website thinks it did.

hutchison

I had the one shot Jansen shot two weeks back, key worker / business, mass injection of those 'employed', not including spouses/family.
some still refused it.

The next day I was pretty rough, like a mild Covid infection. I had Covid 5 months back so I can say it was very similar feelings, headache, sweats/cold and tired, I thought a vaccination was based on the virus without the effects!, oh well.

symptoms passed after 24h.
VA roanoke area.

tom169

Received Moderna today

Steerpike

I received Pfizer today (age 62, in AZ). Had an immediate 'light headed' reaction for 2 minutes, now just a sore arm. Roll on April 7 (2nd dose)!

I got mine at Walmart, because they had the earliest appointments. In hindsight, I wish I'd waited a bit longer for a 'better' store (and/or, a store in a better neighborhood). Walmart's really are the pit of the universe, and the clientele truly lived up to their reputation! I think I saw the worst 'mask compliance' ever in that store today!

scrubbedexpat091

Woo hoo.

Wal-Mart in the US sucks, its crazy the differences between Wal-Mart in Canada vs the US, Wal-Mart in Canada is basically Target store wise, mostly clean and orderly and people no worse than any other store. I have no issue shopping at Wal-Mart in Canada but I wont step foot into a US location especially in California, crazy busy there, Target is my go to store in the US.


With my luck I will end up catching this thing before I get the vaccine, I can see it now get to June almost there, and then sick. I have to go out into the public 6 days a week in retail stores so my days of isolating at home are over.