If you are one of the populations in New Jersey who is actively seeking an appointment for a vaccine settle in for a long haul.
Despite the state doing well last year during the worst of the pandemic it has seriously dropped the ball on the vaccine appointment scheduling. Having had a year to anticipate that at some point there would be a vaccine and that many members of the state’s population would want/need one the vaccine scheduling system leaves a lot to be desired. Clearly the state did not use the time before the appearance of vaccines to think out a streamlined easily accessible system that would make securing an appointment easy for its residents.
Multiple facilities offer vaccines: hospitals, medical facilities, drugstores, supermarkets. And instead of providing a one stop system – a clearinghouse – you have to visit each individual site, register, provide individual pieces of your private details, and keep checking. Click refresh. Multipe times. Then if you are fortunate to glimpse an appointment it often evaporates before your eyes before you can click. Once you are through this portion of the maze security checks, apps, confirmations make the whole thing completely over whelming. It is mind boggling. Not to mention what about senior citizens, the disabled, lower income people?
To date annecdotal evidence suggests the drugstores have the most efficient system to secure a vaccination, but often not enough vaccines. And with some members of the population with health issues nervous about the vaccines having just a pharmacist with an epipen does’t inspire enough confidence to have the vaccine at a drug store.
It is the perfect storm of eager residents, limited vaccine supply and an highly disorganized, overwhelmed scheduling system. Pages are added, edited, removed, links don’t work. Some residents in the state report reaching out to Governor Murphy and Senator Booker with no success at leaving messages or getting calls or emails returned. So what to do?
New Jersey’s Health Commissioner Judith M. Persichilli is apparently aware of mess and working on streamlining things. Good news, but once again – they had a year to prepare for this. And as time moves on more and more groups of residents qualify making the list of those looking for vaccines much, much bigger. So what should you do to ensure you can get a vaccine without losing weeks of your life.
As a start do the following:
- Check your eligibility.
- Make sure you register with the state vaccine scheduling system. Not sure why as beyond a confirmation email you won’t hear from them.
- Check the list of providers for your county.
- If you are comfortable sharing your information register with all providers you would consider going to.
- From the list of available vaccination sites choose your preferred ones and sit on the computer all day with that site’s tab open and click refresh. Continually. Experience shows that appointments sometimes become available mid-afternoon. Others recommend around mid-night.
- Useful information here.
Senior Citizens
Seniors 65+ can call the senior-specific hotline at 856-249-7007 from 8am to 8pm to schedule dedicated vaccine appointments Here.
However, as of 3-22-2021 the advice on the phone was that Walmart was the point for vaccination, but they had none. Hopefully this will change, so best advice is to keep calling as information will hopefully change.
Also there are volunteer groups and individuals helping seniors navigate the technology / appointment maze. Read about it here.
If you are a senior and you are having difficulty contact WGirls who can help you through the system.
Church Of The Presentation (West Saddle River Road) is offering to help seniors navigate the process.
Appointment Finders
As listed in the article if you have twitter there are now several twitter accounts with information on available appointments that are updated regularly throughout the day. Several of the have online access also, see below.
As an aside if you have read this far and are in New York state there is no good advice – except on Sunday there were 13,000 open vaccination slots in NYC. And the Javits Center is processing people rapidly with limited waits. Possibly worth the trip.
Hopefully Governor Murphy and Health Commisioner Persichilli will get their acts together and make it much easier to get an appointment as the groups who qualify are going to swell. Best advice, make a drink, sit in a comfortable chair and click and refresh.
Good luck!!
