Time-sensitive: How to find a vaccine in New York, tomorrow
So It Turns Out, #26
Hi all,
This is a special emergency issue of So It Turns Out. As you may know, Governor Cuomo1 announced today that vaccines will roll out to all individuals over 30 tomorrow, March 30th, and to all individuals over 6 as of April 6.
So, if you or someone you love is in New York, how do you hunt for vaccine appointments?2
The below modifies my previous general vaccine hunting advice for highest chance of success in NY, and especially NYC.
Why do I know what I’m talking about, here? For the past two and a half months, I’ve volunteered for a nonprofit in California that helps folks find vaccines. I’ve called hundreds of vaccine distribution sites and spoken to the medical professionals there that give out vaccines. I’ve helped many of my friends find vaccine appointments in their states, and also have helped strangers in CA, OR, and the DC area find vaccines. This advice will certainly not be perfect, as the story of vaccine distribution varies on a store-by-store basis in ways you’d never believe if you didn’t see them yourself — but I am confident that it will help.
New York Vaccine Hunting Strategy:
If you’re of age, try to get a vaccine tomorrow at 8am, but don’t give up if you don’t succeed tomorrow — you likely will soon: Every previous expansion of eligibility I’ve seen has a common pattern — the highest rush is in the first 1-3 days as the most eager of the newly-eligible are trying to get appointments, and then demand slackens significantly. At the same time, different pharmacy chains get new shipments on different days of the week, so mid-to-late week you’ll see the chains “reload” with new appointments. Keep checking the sources below.
Play as many hands as you can: Do NOT only rely on only one potential source of vaccine, whether that’s the state-run “supersites,” pharmacies, or anything else. Try them all.3
Use the vaccine data aggregators:
Of course, if you’re in NYC, there’s the official city site which is, honestly, pretty decent. But you may be able to go outside the city, or not be in NYC at all, or just want to be using a different website than everyone else in NYC. In which case…
Vaccinespotter.org/NY somehow pulls off the miracle of scraping data directly from pharmacy websites for Walgreens/Duane Reed/Community, CVS, Rite Aid, Walmart, Wegmans, and Weis.
Turbovax focuses on NY-specific supersites and community health locations, and also has some Vaccinespotter data.
NYC Vaccine List is like Turbovax, but I find it personally just a little easier to use. Your mileage may vary.
Do NOT use the following:
Vaccinefinder.org has gotten a lot of press, but it is not yet up to date for NY. It will tell you lots of sites where there was vaccine, but not where there is vaccine. They’ll get there, just not there yet for NY State.
Walgreens website itself is a famously frustrating search engine. It will tell you there are vaccines available and then when you get to the booking step, it will not be available, or it will not let you schedule a first dose appointment because “no second doses are available.” Recommendation: try other chains as your higher priority, but also have a Walgreens account.
Prep tonight for tomorrow morning. You want to wake up with everything you need to register ready to go, including:
Set up whatever accounts you need for pharmacies, including a Walgreens.com account.
Make sure you have the info of the person you’re scheduling (if it isn’t you) and make sure anyone scheduling for you has your information.
If possible, have your basic details (name, address, etc.) in autofill in your web browser.
Your priority on Tuesday, March 30 should be checking locations with city and state sites before pharmacies, and your priority after March 30 should be checking pharmacies before city and state sites: Historically, pharmacy sites’ eligibility forms do not update as quick as city or state sites.
If you are uncomfortable providing information that is technically incorrect to a website in order to get in front of a person that will realize that the rules have changed and that you meet the new rules, you’ll feel more comfortable filling out eligibility forms on city and state sites tomorrow. These sites are also larger, so the benefit of “waiting in line” for one of those sites is greater on average.
However, after March 30th, the pharmacy eligibility forms will update, and will be pockets of availability all over the place, updating at different intervals, so it will be easier to snag a slot at one of them than the supersite that has had 3 gazillion news stories broadcast about it in the past 48 hours. Seriously, no one seems to know pharmacies have vaccines, I’m this close to buying a billboard to tell people about it.
Look tonight at 12:01am to see if the city and state site forms have updated, and then try again first thing tomorrow at 8am March 30: Per vaccine hunting facebook groups’ reports, sometimes the city and state update the eligibility forms for their sites the night before a rule change. If not, try right at 8am tomorrow with everyone else.
If hitting roadblocks, go to https://www.vaccinehunter.org/ , join the group for your region of NY on Facebook, and get help.
Then turn around and help your family and friends. Every day a dose gets faster into an arm is a victory.
Disclosures:
Views are my own and do not represent those of current or former clients, employers, friends, or my cat.
(Edited at 845pm on 3/29 to move and fix a typo in a sentence that escaped from a footnote into the main text by accident)
Another individual was reportedly going to come forwards today to accuse the Governor of inappropriate behavior, and allegedly had photographic evidence documenting their claims. I’m sure the Governor’s choice to announce this Totally Planned Ahead policy change was purely a coincidence. But, well, that shouldn’t stop you from getting a vaccine to help protect our community.
The readership of this newsletter is meaningfully concentrated in DC and NYC. DC folks, sorry for the spam, but share this with any NYC folks interested.
In particular, if you’re trying to get a vaccine for a veteran, call the Veterans Affairs hospital