I'm scheduled for my first vaccine dose next week!

[Buckeye_Democrat]

I first became eligible (age 50+) in Ohio yesterday, so I started searching for ANY vaccination opportunities around me after midnight... only to learn that none of them were taking new appointments. Every freakin' pharmacy, medical center, etc. NONE of them had anything, and it started to really annoy me after spending about 6 straight hours on that search.

So angry about profit-oriented corporations even being involved with it too! Some of their vaccination links were clearly a ploy to help advertise the crap that they're selling, only to give me a disappointing "sooorry" at the end of the nonsense!

I was pretty much burnt out with it yesterday, but decided to quickly look at my county's public health website again late last night. That's when I saw an update from late yesterday afternoon, announcing new registrations with them starting this morning at 8:30 am! (With about 6000 new spots available next week.) The second dose will be automatically scheduled after I get the first one, thankfully.

Anyway, I'm so relieved!

I'm also still disgusted by the RIDICULOUS corporate involvements in this endeavor. It would be so much easier to have a government agency coordinating all of it, but nooo! I guess that would somehow be "socialism" to the damn Republican legislators in this state!

[Cirque du So-What]

1. My wife gets her first dose next week

She’s 60, but we couldn’t get an appointment anywhere until yesterday, when it opened to 50+, oddly enough. She got an appointment at a chain pharmacy, even though we registered at local public health departments. I’ll cancel those after she gets her first shot and gets confirmed for the second one (leaving nothing to chance).

[Buckeye_Democrat]

5. Congrats to your wife!

Another disappointing aspect during my search involving MANY different corporate websites is that they wouldn't even register me as an interested vaccine recipient!

Well, except for ONE small and local pharmacy. They at least took my phone number so they could call or text me whenever they had an appointment opportunity for me. So I was thankful to be registered with SOMEBODY at least!

The other places? They probably view pre-registration as a money-loser for them. "Time is money, so tell them to never call us! We're not going to waste time and resources on that stuff! Just tell them to keep checking for updates on our website, again and again, since their time doesn't matter!"

[Cirque du So-What]

9. Forgot to mention...

I’m in the 65+ group, and I got my appointment at a local health department. First injection at the end of February, second scheduled for end of March.

[Buckeye_Democrat]

10. Congrats! I just wish all of this was centrally organized!

It sounds like it MIGHT be more that way eventually, as President Biden will surely push! (Saw some of his speech yesterday about states making the process more clear and easy.)

[Cirque du So-What]

11. I know

It’s like playing the lottery with a Byzantine process just to buy a ticket.

[Buckeye_Democrat]

13. Lol!

At least I can chuckle about it now somewhat.

I was so angry yesterday!

It's still insane, though, and I want something better for later vaccine recipients!

[In_The_Wind]

2. It felt like I was never going to get that 1st appointment.

On March 3rd I had my 1st shot and my husband got his 1st shot on March 6th.

[Freddie]

3. My husband registered with our local hospital chain

2 months ago, finally got the email with a link to schedule appointment. Getting mine tomorrow!

[LisaL]

4. Did they tell you which vaccine you are going to get?

NT

[Buckeye_Democrat]

6. I suspect it will be Pfizer, but not sure.

Their most recent vaccination clinics all used Pfizer.

[mackdaddy]

14. Local County health dept here in Hocking Co OH

I finally got my first dose of Moderna a week ago, and will get second Apr 1st.

They gave out Phizer early, but were Moderna now. They said that this week they would also have the J&J single dose.

So it seems to be much more what is available.

[Buckeye_Democrat]

15. Great news about greater availability!

I'm slightly concerned about someone not refrigerating the Pfizer doses properly, but I'll gladly take any of the approved vaccines at this point.

I've been super-careful for about a year! Live alone, and I've been inside a building other than my apartment a total of three times during that time span! (Always masked, and one time was inside an empty post office lobby to mail my absentee ballot.)

Surviving on my savings (with some help with stimulus checks) since I quit my job last March, a company that was clearly not taking the virus seriously.

Will be job-seeking again soon, after the vaccinations!

Edit: I hope that I can remember how to socialize with people again. Lol!

[mackdaddy]

23. I am glad the Moderna was available to me.

I prefer the Phizer or Moderna 2 shot, but I would have been happy with the J&J.

I think Thursday last week was the first day available for under 65 when I was able to get my appointment.

I had registered on-line with the County Heath Dept. last month. I tried to register with kroger where I have gotten other vacs, but their website would not take my registration since my age group was not open yet.

The health dept actually called me to make the appointment. We are in super Trumpie country, but the health department said that they were having good luck filling the appointments, but some were not making their second appointment they said.

[Buckeye_Democrat]

24. Happy and relieved for you!

My experience with the Kroger website was kind of weird. I was initially happy that they had already updated the eligibility requirements in Ohio, correctly acknowledging that I was eligible. (Some other websites weren't updated yet for Ohio.)

And then I was happy again to see a few time slots available, albeit at stores not very close to be. No matter! I picked one of them at the closest store available to me.

Then they required making the second appointment too! So I tried to do that as well, but they wouldn't let me look beyond a few days into the future anywhere! Yet they also required waiting at least a couple weeks for the 2nd appointment, so it was essentially impossible.

And without making the 2nd appointment too, their website wouldn't allow me to proceed any further! No taking my personal information, no securing the first dose appointment, etc!

Those kinds of time-wasters, from them and some others, is what really irritated me after awhile.

[mackdaddy]

25. The health department made the second appt at the first appointment.

The wait time for moderna is 4 weeks, and Phizer was 3weeks.

My appointment was for exactly 4 weeks later at the same time.

The second appointment for you on the kroger site was strange about the two weeks.

[Buckeye_Democrat]

26. I might be remembering wrong about a couple weeks...

... but they made it impossible even if the 2nd dose could be given a week later. It was like the workings of a software programming madman!

Yeah, my county's health department is doing it the same way. The vaccination card given after the first dose will indicate when I need to show up for the second dose. A sensible way of handling it!

[Jirel]

7. Congrats!

Standing in line for mine right now.

[Buckeye_Democrat]

8. Congrats!

[we can do it]

12. Me too at Cleveland State mass vaccination site.

[piddyprints]

16. Congratulations!

We are still in the 65+ age range here in TN. I missed it by 6 months. There is no target in sight for when the next group is eligible. But I am shocked and happy that they're already in the 50+ in your state!

[Buckeye_Democrat]

17. Thanks, and so sorry about your situation.

Ohio dropped the age requirement by a lot this week! Really surprised me. Figured my turn was still weeks or maybe even months away, as of last week.

[piddyprints]

19. They're talking about dropping it a little here, but no idea when.

At any rate, we'll all be eligible on May 1. I'm happy about that!

[Buckeye_Democrat]

21. Yes! So happy with President Joe!

[LisaL]

18. My pre-existing condition made me eligible as well.

By the way, when I was searching for appointments, Pfizer seems to be out in my area. Moderna is the one they are giving out now, and some J&J.

[Buckeye_Democrat]

20. My older siblings all got Moderna vaccines.

I'm the youngest sibling BY FAR in my family... an "accident" when our parents were in their 40's. One sister is more than 21 years older than me.

The sister that's 14 years older is getting her 2nd dose about right now, coincidentally.

I'll soon see. I just noticed that my county's health department used Pfizer for other recent vaccinations, but it might be Moderna for me? All I know is that it will be one of the two-dose vaccines.

[LetMyPeopleVote]

22. Congratulations