anyone in Ohio have advice on the best way

[Tribetime]

To book a covid vaccination. Im 60 and seem to be spinning my wheels trying to find a place that isn't booked up.

[Alliepoo]

1. Where in Ohio are you?

We were having a heck of a time here in the Cbus area-couldn’t get an appointment anywhere. We registered w county health dept, local hospitals, CVS, Walgreen, Discount Drug Mart, Meijer and kept checking Kroger stores across town. I don’t know how far you want to travel but we had good luck in scheduling w Shrivers Pharmacy. They’re in Zanesville, Logan, Athens etc-southeastern Ohio area. They start taking appointments at 10am on Sunday morning online. We were ready online at 10 and got an appt in Zanesville with no trouble. After we scheduled those, I found a Kroger in Lancaster (much closer) that had some appointments so that’s where we went instead. Cancelled the Zville appointments after we got our first jab at Krog. Good luck! I know it’s frustrating.

[Tribetime]

3. Cuyahoga county

[Doremus]

22. Register online at Drug Mart. They 're very good at keeping you up to date.

My hubby made me an appt online at Giant Eagle. Check their site every morning around 9 when it seems they add new appointment times. My other suggestion is if you're a patient at Cleveland Clinic to check in every day on MyChart. DH did that this morning and lo and behold there were appts available for next week. If you don't have a MyChart, definitely register for one.

Good luck and don't give up.

[luvs2sing]

2. My advice is to have multiple places to check..

and check early, really early, in the morning. I’m 63 and got my shot scheduled at Wexner at 5:45am on the day before it opened up to 60 and over. In fact, I just got home from getting my first Pfizer. It is unfortunately a crapshoot, and I was definitely lucky, but most of my 65+ friends had good luck with hitting multiple websites several times a day with early morning being most successful.

[Tribetime]

4. 👍 Thanks Ill try it

[luvs2sing]

5. More..

Build a list of websites for everyplace you know of that is offering the vaccine so you can click on them quickly. And be prepared to travel a little. Several of my friends ended up driving to smaller towns 30+ miles away because they had appointments open.

Good luck!

[Alliepoo]

7. Yes-check online as often as you can.

I did check multiple times a day.

[Ms. Toad]

6. I got a CVS appointment through their website on Tuesday @ 9:30 AM

There was only one location available - but there were approximately 20 appointments each on three separate days. (My appointment is for tomorrow - but at least this batch of appointments seemed to have been released near 9:30 on a Tuesday).

I don't know if they stagger the release times - but the best way is really to just keep checking at the various websites.

Here's this, too: https://www.csuohio.edu/news/csu%E2%80%99s-wolstein-center-selected-host-first-state-federal-mass-vaccination-clinic-for-covid-19-in

The mass vaccination clinic will operate seven days a week, 12 hours per day. Any Ohioan who is eligible to receive the vaccine under the Ohio Department of Health’s vaccination plan may be vaccinated at the clinic, but focus will be placed on ensuring that high-risk and underserved Ohioans have easy access to appointments.

A friend heard they were Johnson & Johnson (which disturbs me, if true, since the site is designed to serve underserved populations - so if the underserved population is given the significantly less effective vaccine it perpetuates an existing disparity in healthcare).

This article does not identify which vaccine will be given.

[CincyDem]

13. Re: the J&J vaccine...

I just got mine and was concerned about the vaccine roulette situation too. Talked with several local docs and learned:

The efficacy quoted (Pfizer = 95%, Moderna = 94%, J&J = 72%) was effectiveness against any symptoms. If you consider serious, hospital level symptoms, Moderna was 92%, J&J was 85% and there was no number for Pfizer.

The Pfizer and Moderna test were done before widespread transmission of the more recent, stronger strains. The J&J test was later and almost half of the test subjects in the clinical were in South Africa where the mutant strains were rampant.

Their conclusion digging into the raw data of the clinical was that J&J is "slightly" less effective than the other two but nothing like the 72 vs. 95 would lead one to believe.

Finally, on a small base, re the distribution going to underserved communities...I got my shot in one of the most underserved areas...it was a Pfizer. Close friends in a pretty affluent area of Hamilton Co got J&J. I know...small base....but I don't think you can conclude that either J&J is meaningfully less effective or that that J&J is being channeled into poorer communities.

IMHO.

[Ms. Toad]

14. This is the first mass distribution in Ohio -

and it is expressly targeting disadvantaged communities. So if the cure for Ohio's age-based criteria (which ignores the reality that non-white populations tend to have more risk factors at a younger age) is to provide less adequate protection, that exascerbates the existing disparity.

You're going the wrong way (from what I care about) as to symptoms.

I am interested in preventing all symptoms (not merely serious/death). The bulk of transmissions are via asymptomatic illness. The lack of regular testing for PCR positivity (regardless of symptoms) is one of the main reasons we don't know whether vaccinating a single person protects ONLY that person - or whether they are contributing to herd immunity. Prevention of PCR+ is far more important for community protection - and that still leaves J&J significantly less effective at preventing transmission in a community more likely to be harder hit.

[CincyDem]

15. OK - sounds like we're looking for different things. Good luck Tuesday. :-) n/t

[Ms. Toad]

21. Yup.

Because I have multiple risk factors (2, likely 3, cancers & diabetes), I was personally looking for the best protection (which is either Pfizer or Moderna). But from a population perspective - I'd really like to see the populations that are most at risk get the vaccine that is most likely to prevent transmission (i.e. provide the most community protection).

There's one small study in the UK that indicates that not only do th mRNA vaccines prevent symptomatic disease - they also prevent seroconversion. That is likely to mean that they will prevent not only disease, but transmission to others. Johnson & Johnson's (an RNA vccine) bragging point is prevention of death. That's a good thing - but if we can stop transmission there will be no/less need to stop death.

My appoinment is actually tomorrow - Tuesday @9:30 was the time a whole bunch of appointments opened up. Just trying to be helpful about when might be a good time to jump on the site.

[CincyDem]

24. Got it. Sounds like you've dug in a lot deeper.

I appreciate the additional perspective and can see why you would look at any symptoms as the critical measure. Thanks.

Here to hoping you’re looking down the barrel of a Pfizer syringe tomorrow.

[Ms. Toad]

26. I was a teeny bit worried,

since they opened up 60+ on Thursday (making me eligible any day Thursday or later), but when I registered on Tuesday I had to fib to get past the gate-keeping quesiton (which was still stuck on 65+, even though the first slots were Friday and later). I put my actual birthdate on the scheduling page, so they can clearly see I'm eligible on Saturday.

But I've been nervously checking my email to make sure they didn't send a cancellation since - even though I am eligible on the day I get the vaccine - I wasn't eligible according to their gatekeeping.

[LisaL]

16. Who says the vaccines are going to be J&J?

News says Pfizer.

"Governor DeWine also announced today that 50,000 doses of Pfizer vaccine will be dedicated to two pop-up mass vaccination sites in Columbus and Cincinnati."

https://www.nbc4i.com/news/dewine-15-mass-vaccination-sites-to-open-including-in-central-ohio/

[Ms. Toad]

20. This is different than the pop-up sites.

This is a state/Federal mass vaccination site in downtown Cleveland that will be there for an extended period of time, expressly designed to serve the underserved population.

The White House Covid-19 task force also announced Friday that they would would open two new federally-supported mass vaccination sites at the Atlanta Falcon’s Stadium in Georgia and Wolstein Center at Cleveland State University in Ohio.

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/white-house/white-house-says-detroit-mayor-s-j-j-vaccine-comments-n1259749

(They have been doing pop up sites with some regularity for a while.)

I have not been able to track down which vaccine is going to be used at the Cleveland site - but the friend who told me about the state/federal vaccination site indicated it was Johnson & Johnsn, and that it was vaccine in addition to Ohio's normal allotment. Everything but the specific vaccine has checked out - so I have qualified every comment I have made with "If true," since I have not confired which vaccine.

[LisaL]

27. It will still be Pfizer.

"The clinic will be open seven days a week and about 12 hours a day. It will offer the first dose of Pfizer’s vaccine in the first three weeks and will offer the same people their second dose in the fourth through sixth weeks. In the final two weeks, DeWine said, it has not yet been determined which vaccine will be given."

https://www.clevelandjewishnews.com/news/local_news/wolstein-center-among-mass-vaccination-sites-across-ohio/article_213f3914-7dce-11eb-b28d-5bfe250aeaed.html

[Ms. Toad]

28. Great - glad my friend was wrong!

I went through at least a dozen articles, searching with the vaccine names, and couldn't find any that indicated which vaccines were being given.

[blueinredohio]

8. IMO you have a better chance if you can travel to a smaller town.

The clinic I go to are offering people vaccines when they have a doctors appointment. My doctor called today and said they had extra shots if I could get there. I dropped everything and took off. Was there about an hour and a half.

[SkylineChili]

9. Cincinnati info, for What it's worth

We only had luck with Kroger's. For my friends, for my spouse and me. Kroger's site was the only one we found that had appointments. It is so frustrating in Ohio. My friends in other states don't understand how Hunger Games Ohio is. They have a more organized rollout. Ohio is fragmented, fractured, spotty, and competitive. My advice is to talk to people in your neighborhood and city who have received the vaccine. Find out what worked for them locally and replicate it. Good luck to you!

[llmart]

23. Your state is not alone...

Michigan is just as bad as Ohio. Posters on here talking about how they registered via phone with their country health department???? That's a joke compared to my country in Michigan. You can't get through on their number at all and they only allow calls on Tuesdays. They interviewed some people on the local news who said they dialed hundreds of times and couldn't get through.

So, Ohio isn't the only state that's disorganized.

[doc03]

10. I called the county health department two times and added my name to their list

and went to the county health department and was told they don't handle the appointments themselves. Then last Sunday evening
instead of calling I registered on line and got a call the next morning with a Wednesday appointment, I don't think they read their call
in lists. I also tried numerous times to schedule one at Kroger and there were never appointments available. I know another person that
asked the Kroger pharmacy to put them on their "cancellation list" and was called the same day to come in and get the shot.

[Alliepoo]

11. Just saw on our local NBC STATION

That Dewine announced mass vaccination sites opening up soon. Looks like there was a location in Summit county.I bet if you go online to NBC4i.com Columbus you can see the news piece. And while I’m thinking about it-do you have a Nextdoor Neighborhood website in your area? If so you might find some good info from folks in your area. (That’s how I heard about Shrivers Pharmacy.)

[Ohiogal]

12. I feel your pain, I'm running into the same thing.

Why does the state deem you eligible when there’s nothing to be had anywhere? Maddening!

I finally at least got my name registered for an appt. at the Dept. of Health. They say they’ll call me when they get some vaccines in. Who knows how long that will be. But no one else even takes your name. It’s soooo frustrating!

Edit: I’m in Trumbull Co. Trump Land

[Demsrule86]

19. My friend gave me the name of this and the phone number. I know he is going

back for his second shot next Thursday. It is at the Fairgrounds.

330-675-2489
trumbull county combined health district warren city

[LisaL]

17. There is going to be a mass vaccination site opening in Cleveland.

"Cleveland State University’s Bert L. and Iris S. Wolstein Center will serve as one of two, eight-week Federal Emergency Planning Administration, COVID-19 mass vaccination sites across the nation, Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine announced March 5. DeWine said there will be an additional 15 mass vaccination sites across the state."

https://www.clevelandjewishnews.com/news/local_news/wolstein-center-among-mass-vaccination-sites-across-ohio/article_213f3914-7dce-11eb-b28d-5bfe250aeaed.html

[Demsrule86]

18. I live in Austintown now which is Youngstown, I went thought the city and they are giving

vaccinations at rec centers...where do you live? I got one right away for Tuesday.

[Notek]

25. Try

Akron City Hospital if you can travel south about 30 miles. I got my covid-19 vaccinations there with no hassle.