Texas is opening up vaccines to all adults starting March 29th
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How does one get an appointment in Texas? My son is a college student, Denton county. Iād love to get him vaccinated but it seems harder to get an appointment in Texas relative to home in AZ and I donāt have the system figured out like I do for my home state.
I texted to my brother last night (who has had first vaccine and scheduled for second) that his wife try Facebook Vaccine Hunters in Illinois. Sheās under 65 but serious underlying health conditions. He replied this morning thanking me for the tip and that she was able to schedule an April 1 appointment for her first shot. I think her group becomes eligible March 29.
I pass on his thanks to all of you for the tip!
In the meantime, my 26 year old niece in Wisconsin got her first shot today because sheās a tech consultant with major company that handles health care systems and she does call on customers. Well, not in the last year, but her position makes her eligible.
My WFH 33 year old son in Seattle and 29 year old nephew in Brooklyn will likely have to wait until supplies flood their states and eligibility opens up to everybody. I know my son is not planning to game the system and will wait until heās notified.
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Note that early eligibility opening up for everyone before the supply flood just means that more people will be competing in the hunger games for the scarce vaccines. Perhaps good for the forum demographic, but not so much for those in earlier priority groups who have not been able to get the vaccine due to access issues (cannot get through the overloaded appointment web site, have limited windows of time due to work obligations, do not have or know about assistance from vaccine hunters, etc.).
Adding to the free for all in NJ, anybody living in aggregate housing is eligible. They have explicitly said this includes college dorms. So now many NJ families are flying their kids back from their college across the country (where there are different rules in that state) to get them the shot in NJ.
I became eligible yesterday (age 60) I have been checking multiple sites a few times a day but havenāt seen one opening yet. This week is tough for me scheduling wise so I havenāt pushed it harder. Starting next Monday I will start going all out to find something. I want an appointment before they open it up to even more people. Seems like there are lots more people eligible, but the number of slots hasnāt increased.
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Once vaccine demand in a given age starts to slow, the next group needs to be opened. There will be demographics where only low volume approaches will work - those that need convincing or those that need the vaccine to be delivered to them in home, but high volume delivery is the only logical way to get the higher rates of immunity.
AZ is opening up to everyone 16 and up partially because there were 60,000 unfilled appointments according to last nights local news. I think that benefits most demographics , CC and other.
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No worries about earlier priority groups in Seattle. Plentiful openingā¦ anywhere from the country mass sites to private pharmacies. One just need to be eligible. Phone lines have been set up in addition to web sign up.
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ETA: while the US apparently administers 2.5 million doses a day, our state only does 25,000 (in the past several days). I do not think our state has 1% of the total US population. Pitiful. Laughable. 
Based on the experience in Philadelphia, demographics of vaccine recipients* changes considerably when a vaccine site reserves doses for walk-ins rather than requiring appointments. I.e. having to make and appointment can itself be a barrier, so that there may be previous priority group people who want a vaccine but have difficulty with the appointment system, leaving the appointments open.
*The article focused on racial demographics, but it is likely that SES is a major underlying factor there, since the racial groups have different SES distributions.
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Michigan is opening up for everyone April 1. I told my daughter in PA that she could use our address and come home for her vaccine. She said that PA should open up soon after so sheāll wait.
Mostly her employer changed their vacation policy and sheās low on vacation days. Wants to use them on an actual vacation
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Sign up wherever you can. Start with the Denton County Health Dept, their mega vaccine site at the Texas Motor Speedway is the most efficient and well run production youāll ever see, itās truly impressive. Also, CVSā¦the trick is to go to the website between 12:00-5:00 am, you can usually find open appt slots. Others have been signing up with Collin & Dallas County alsoā¦I say do them all and go wherever you get in first then cancel your spots on the other waitlists
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Holding multiple spots with the intention of using only one probably makes the hunger games more competitive, analogous to high school seniors applying to larger lists of colleges than before.
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What is the AZ system for signups? My son is vaccinated but is traveling cross-country with a friend from AZ. Theyāll pass through AZ in a couple weeks and his friend (20 yrs old) was hoping to get the vaccine while passing through.
It hasnāt been that way at all. Texas doesnāt get much right, but weāve hit out of the park with vaccine efficiency. From what Iāve observed and what local media outlets are reporting, most people are being very conscientious and responsible about waiting their turns, signing up and canceling. The directive to sign up wherever you can is coming from the authorities themselves. Before it was you could only sign up in your county of residence, and then amended to anywhere in the state, regardless of where you live. I donāt think itās being abused 
With Gov Abbot dropping mask mandates and allowing all businesses to open back up 100%, I donāt blame anyone for hedging their bets and signing up wherever they can. And with all adults eligible now, they will still give preference to the elderly, if youāre above a certain age, you move to the front of the line.
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We all signed up on our county website. They would confirm the date you were registered and what date they were on for filling appointments. So at least you could see about where you were in line. After a really slow start, it took 6 weeks for me to get one, it now is less than 3 weeks. I think it is a little easier when you can watch the progress. We also did other sites while we were waiting but the county ended up coming first anyhow.
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So is Seattle/Washington not getting a representative supply, or are appointments going unused?
The latter! Plenty of appointments available per my recent checking, but I cannot yet register my husband who will be eligible in a week, to even get on a list to be notified. No wonder people are gaming the system by claiming they have eligibilityā¦ but it is better they get the vaccine than the vaccine going to waste or sitting in the freezer.
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Texas opens vaccines up to 18 and older March 29th! Wish my hs senior was 18 alreadyā¦
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and GA is now 16 (18) and up! plenty of vaccine in the rural areas and at the FEMA site at Mercedes Benz Stadium
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