Signing up for Covid vaccine is a nightmare in Pennsylvania.

[Freedomofspeech]

For the last week and a half a network of my friends and classmates have spent literally days trying to get registered on different sites to get our vaccine. Some have been successful, others not. Fortunately we are all educated and computer savvy. We are also trying to help other people who have no computer skills. This has been a most stressful experience because after all, it is a matter of life and death.
My friends in Ohio have already had their vaccines because every County in Ohio has a Department of Health and they organized different centers where they could go and get their shots. Only two Counties in PA have Health Departments so we are on our own to chase down the vaccine. This is insane.
I remember getting the polio vaccine in school. 🙄

[cilla4progress]

1. So sorry!

Hearing about delays for family - all over 65 - in other states.

Kudos to my Governor Inslee here in Washington. Rollout going great...especially since Biden admin came on board.

Holding you all in my heart!

[Freedomofspeech]

2. Thank you...this is totally absurd.

[montanacowboy]

16. Not so

Been trying to get signed up for a month, been on every site from Arlington to downtown Seattle, and there are no available slots.
Trying every Safeway, every QFC, every Fred Meyer both King and Sno Counties Health Departments, Everett, Mill Creek, Bothell, and on and on. My providers are Swedish Hospital and my doctor looked at me like I had two heads for asking if I could get a shot. They have NO supply. In December, Univ. of Washington had some slots and that filled up so quickly, they are now shut down on their sites. You can spend all day long on line looking and you can't find available shots.

So we just keep trying and trying.

[blueinredohio]

3. I got a scam call tonight to call this number to sign up for a covid vaccine.

We have to call our county health department to get an appointment. Call back I don't know how many times. Its a long process.

[PCIntern]

4. Yep. I'm 1a. Not even close to getting it here in Eastern PA

[Freedomofspeech]

5. Good luck with that.

[Tree-Hugger]

6. No better in MontCo

Our health department says it won't be until next year when 1fuckingA gets done.

It's such a shit show here and it's very frustrating. My dad is 72, retired, living on his own. My mom passed last year. He's kinda okay on the internet, but not super savy. He lives in Philadelphia. While PA has 65+ in 1A, Philly has it at 75+. My dad has a few health issues. He's talked to his doctor - no dice. He's talked to the VA - nada. I told him to look into Rite Aid and Wegmans. I dont know if he can get it in another county. I know a lot of people have jumped counties. He's hesitant with everything.

I'm 42 with heart disease and I've gained a bunch of weight over the pandemic and my BMI is now 30 and my BP is creeping. Due to poverty, I haven't been to my cardiologist in 6 years. I don't have a regular doctor or any healthcare. I'm in a DV situation and I have kids. I am so desperate to have this vaccine because if something happens to me.....I can't imagine. To hear the MontCo health department speak, it's all gloom and I shouldn't expect a vaccine in forever. We've barely got an vaccine coming in for the county and we are way way behind on the 1A people who did get to register.

This is an absolute shithouse mess.

[moonscape]

7. Not easy here in CA on the central

coast either. I miss the 75 yo cutoff and they just opened it to >65. Except, Stanford allowed 65 and over for a while, but not for their patients in my county. I’m in several medical networks but still couldn’t get an appt. Am high risk, on chemo ‘mongst other things, but realized I just had to be patient.

Then yesterday I got an outreach email from a medical group I’ve not used in close to 20 years, saying as their patient I could get a vaccine and the email link was good for 48 hours! Jumped on it, made appt for tomorrow, and today got another email asking to upload driver’s license and once I.did, it was confirmed and ready to go.

This is an impossible process for those who aren’t online and even then, not good at navigating. Trying to do it by phone is fruitless.

As supply increases, which is clearly happening, it will be easier. TG we have the federal govt guiding and supporting ... finally.

[Tracer]

8. Problem in Massachusetts is

plenty of sites now, but not enough vaccine, meaning no appointments at those sites.

I,m going to wait until my medical group contacts me ... which they say they will do, as soon as they get some vaccine. And Im in the group that is supposed to be getting it now.

[MOMFUDSKI]

9. Real bad here in Florida

Have been on 2 different websites plus a phone sign-up thingy and nothing. This morning I finally got thru to the Publix (a supermarket here) vaccine site after watching it refresh for an hour. Answered yes to allergies to shellfish and thimerisol and plugged a bunch of info in and the last page had a place to make the appointment but it gave me the red X. I took it to mean because of the allergies they wouldn't allow me to get the vaccine there. One can't call the store so I can't even get an answer as to what happened. So I will go on the county site every morning like I have been doing and keep trying. There has been no organization here from the get-go. Our rethug gubner is useless and I am sure he and the grocery folks are making money. The grocery folks are big repubs that donated a ton of cash to this gubner and seems to me they worked a deal on the vaccine. Just sayin'

[cyclonefence]

10. PA is horrible

My husband and I are both 1a, and we could spend all day every day calling places--no luck. We registered with the Bucks Dept. of Health 2 wks ago. We got an email acknowledging that we'd registered. None of my doctors know where there is vaccine; our local hospital, which is supposed to be an official vaccine place, has no vaccine. CVS has no vaccine.

I hear through the grapevine that there is vaccine in Allentown.

[Buckeye_Democrat]

11. I didn't know that about PA's departments of health!

I've been wondering for months why Pennsylvania had:
(1) The lowest average Covid testing per capita in the country.
(2) Very high positivity rates, often worse than the reddest states which have been awful.

[FakeNoose]

15. The high positivity rating is easy to understand

They are only testing those they really, really suspect are infected. (If you're showing symptoms already.) If you aren't showing symptoms, they won't test you.

Now that is supposed to be changing, supposedly we can request a test even if we don't have symptoms. But I don't know many people who have done that.

[Buckeye_Democrat]

17. Yeah, I agree that they were related.

The lowest average testing rate is mostly what surprised me, but that could have been caused from a lack of more departments to help manage local residents.

[FakeNoose]

12. Yes Pennsylvania is a nightmare - at least so far

I just saw today that the NFL is offering football stadiums (currently not being used) for vaccination locations. That would be GREAT for us! I'm only a couple miles from Heinz Field in Pittsburgh. Easy to get to (for many of us) and plenty of parking. Lots of room for social distancing too.

For Pittsburgh and Philly it's an ideal solution. But sadly, it doesn't help the rest of the state.

[Blue_true]

13. Our healthcare system is proving to be a drawback.

Also, Trump was a real problem in terms of helping states set up efficient systems. Britain, with it’s more centralized and widely distributed healthcare and testing system, is running circles around us.

Hopefully the pandemic will show citizens why universal healthcare is a good idea.

[Retrograde]

14. Got a letter from Kaiser saying they're having problems getting vaccine

Something like a third of the people in my county get their healthcare through Kaiser, so of course they and Sutter Health are at the end of the line for vaccine distribution

I was able to get an appointment through Santa Clara county for next week: we'll see what happens. At least it's in the next town down, not in south San Jose. Or Sacramento, like a friend in San Mateo told me today.

I'm not blaming the new administration, as they've only had two weeks. But if Jared and Co. wanted to make a mess of vaccine distribution they certainly succeeded.

[SharonClark]

18. Same in Iowa.