Time to Get Vaccinated

Recycling another old, pre-COVID era photograph. K and I will be getting our vaccines at Javits Center, not far from Hudson Yards, where I took this photo.

I'm happy to report that K and I are officially getting vaccinated with our first doses of the Pfizer vaccine on April 7! 

For the first two days after New York state opened COVID vaccine eligibility to our 30+ age group starting at 8:00 AM on March 30, it was extremely difficult to get an appointment in NYC. Both K and I basically needed to keep refreshing several sign-up websites repeatedly throughout the day and could only get the opportunity to sign up for an appointment if we got very lucky and clicked very fast when something popped up. That was how we were eventually able to book the April 15 slot I mentioned on my Instagram stories. (Between the two of us, we were only able to sign up for that one single appointment in the first two days. We agreed I should have it instead of K because I would likely be expected back in the office much sooner than he would be.) 

By midday on April 1, however, both the state and city government-run vaccine sites and also some of the hospitals and pharmacies began releasing large blocks of up to thousands of appointment slots. Afterwards, it became significantly easier to find a COVID vaccine appointment here in NYC without needing to continuously refresh several different websites at a time. So K and I were both able to sign up for appointments on April 7 without too much trouble, and I then cancelled my April 15 appointment so someone else could take it.

My mom in California was able to get her first dose of the vaccine on April 2, and K's parents just got their second doses in Connecticut this past weekend. My sister should hopefully be able to sign up for an appointment in the Washington D.C. area in the next week or two. I'm just so happy and relieved that we and our loved ones here in the US are finally going to be protected! 

I don't believe too many readers here live in the NYC area, but if you do and you still need a COVID vaccine appointment, I've gotten most of my information about how and when to sign up through @turbovax and @nycshotslots. Both accounts post updates in a fairly timely manner when various providers in the NYC area drop a large block of new vaccine appointments. 

Based off K and I's experience, I expect that when New York state first opens up the next eligibility group, to all ages on April 6, it'll initially be difficult to get an appointment in the first few days. But it seems like the government-run vaccine sites, hospitals, and pharmacies are constantly getting in new supply and posting new appointments, so it hopefully won't take too long before it becomes fairly easy to find an appointment.