h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Today my age group became eligible for Covid-19 vaccination. So I went to the state websites set up for booking appointments.

Tis is what I invariably found:

"This application crashed."

If I were one to believe in global conspiracy theories this could become one as similar happened over here

How have you dealt with it. If you recount your experience maybe I could benefit.

I have not experienced it myself, just read about it in my paper

I also deducted from said paper that I am apparently not in the group of citizens at a particular risk (due to underlying medical reasons) so I will probably not be offered my anti covid-19 jab any time soon

This is of course both good and bad. Mostly good. I hope

I had my vaccination yesterday having had an appointment sent by post last week. It was slightly chaotic as I think they were using quite a few volunteers but we got there in the end and I had my jab - it happened to be the Pfizer vaccine - and I now have a slightly sore arm but otherwise feel fine and very happy to know that I have some protection from the virus.

I've been back to the website five or six times since this morning.

The State has set up four huge vaccination centers -- one in Springfield, one in Worcester, one in Foxboro, and one in Boston. Drugstores/pharmacies, health centers /HMOs, and local town boards of health are also players, but they are more variable for availability. Smaller amounts of vaccine get sent to them, so they run out quickly, but they are also apt to be just a few miles away from me. Foxboro is about twelve miles away -- not prohibitive, but in bad driving conditions I wouldn't take the risk of driving there. Fenway Park is about nine miles away, but where would I park?

Worcester? A thirty mile schlep to get there. Forget Springfield -- 70 miles maybe.

I will visit the site frequently in case something nearby opens up randomly.

Our governor is getting criticized for bungling the website. It's hard to be in charge.

In the entire state of Massachusetts there is only one dose of vaccine available in the next week, and it is at one of the megacenters tomorrow. I refuse to drive in the snow to get to it, assuming that it would sitll be available by the time I tried to sign up for it.

(There's a perverse pleasure to be found in this search, though. Frustrating, but oddly entertaining.

It is now almost exactly a week later, and still there's not even one vaccination slot available. I check the state's website every day, several times.

The governor has promised to add 50,000 vaccinations to the mix tomorrow, so I will be up early searching....

With h2g2 down all day yesterday you will at least have had some more time to look for vaccines

I haven't heard anything about my vaccinations yet. But I read about people who have and are now frantically looking for a place and a time to actually receive their jabs. Many of them to no avail so far

Our government has decided to open up a bit. Shops up to a certain number of square feet can open Monday 1 March. On the island of Bornholm even hair dressers and tattoo parlors can start w*rking again.

But my local bar will not reopen anytime soon so none of the above matters much to me

I'm in the UK and had mine on Tuesday. My doctor's surgery called me last week and invited me to attend at a local hotel. I must say, from start to finish it was seamless, all the volunteers (many, many of them) were efficient and friendly, the vaccine was practically painless and my arm ached a tiny bit for a couple of days. I had the Pfizer one.

I feel a little bit strong and mighty now I've had it , although I know 1) it takes weeks for the effectiveness to kick in and 2) even after the 2nd jab I won't be 100% invulnerable. Also 3) it's not in my nature to worry about things so it's not like I spent my time being terrified of catching it.

Deb

'Welcome to the Commonwealth of Massachusetts COVID-19 Vaccination Appointment Scheduling Site
Your estimated wait time is 246 minutes..."

Ten minutes aog, the wait time was supposed to be 180 minutes. Instead of declining by ten minutes, it increased by 76.

50,000 more doses of vaccine were to be added today. What do you bet they'll be all gone with 246 minutes?

Now it's 151 minutes.

136 minutes.

I've given up. For now.