What is it like to try to make a COVID-19 vaccine appointment right now, when California made millions of new people eligible as of Thursday morning? For NBC Bay Area’s Business and Tech Reporter Scott Budman, it was a day of rejection online and on the phone. But, he says keep your tabs open and keep trying.
San Francisco-based website Dr. B tries to match vaccine doses with those who want appointments. Like many sites, it asks for some personal information, including name, address and cell number.
Once you're registered, Dr. B will send an open vaccine appointment to your cell phone, so it's worth keeping your phone with you, and bookmarking Hidrb.com.
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It's also worth bookmarking a local Facebook and Instagram group or two. I checked in with both but found no appointments through the social network.
Now, at one point today, the MyTurn.Ca.Gov site from the state of California said if you're 50 and above, you can actually register for a shot Wednesday.
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So I tried, put in my information and again, got rejected. It even saved me a step by reaching out for appointments through local Rite-Aids.
Speaking of drugstores, we then hit the CVS and Walgreens websites and tried to make appointments.
What we found from the pharmacies is that, just after midnight, they schedule a whole week's worth of new appointments. So, after midnight, go back online, and fill out the information.
But during the day? No luck. Most of the stores are booked solid.
Another site that scours the entire Bay Area to find a vaccine appointment is called Bay Area Vaccine Notification. It's thorough, but it's a little complex. The first thing you have to do to get there is download an app available on the Google or Apple app store called Telegram, then go to the chat function and type in, all one word, “BayAreaVaccineNotification.”
Click here for more tips that could help you land an appointment.
