HoW to schedule a vaccine through cvs (without the waiting)
In MA, teachers finally became able to schedule COVID vaccines on Thursday March 4th through CVS! While I’ve been able to make dozens of appointments for my 65+, 2+ comorbidity, and teacher friends, I’ve heard lots of frustration around navigating the website and spending hours in the waiting room at 5am in the morning. Below are my tips for securing you and your loved ones a precious, potentially life-saving shot.
SOmE general info
The vaccines usually get released early morning hours (4-6am) each day. The day you check the website will typically determine the vaccine option you’ll be given. For example, I got mostly Moderna options on Thursday morning, mostly Janssen (Johnson&Johnson) options Friday morning, and Pfizer options Saturday morning. Once you click the appointment, you’ll have 30 minutes to complete your personal and insurance information so you don’t need to worry too much about filling out the forms quickly (this is why I personally feel that scheduling through CVS is the best - other websites have you race for a time slot and by the time you finish the forms the time slot is gone... how frustrating!!)
***UPDATE added 3/10: For those of you feeling frustrated at not finding any appointments using this method lately... I haven't see any new appointments added online since Saturday. I'd try tomorrow Thursday 3/11. If you use this method and sign on around 6am and don't see ANY appointments for about 5-min., just go ahead and go back to sleep!
***UPDATE added 3/10: For those of you feeling frustrated at not finding any appointments using this method lately... I haven't see any new appointments added online since Saturday. I'd try tomorrow Thursday 3/11. If you use this method and sign on around 6am and don't see ANY appointments for about 5-min., just go ahead and go back to sleep!
Step 1: get set Up tHe night before
The day or night before, go to the CVS COVID vaccination website. Your job is to get to the scheduler page by whatever means possible. Typically this scheduler page isn’t available unless the state is showing available appointments on that overview page, so what you may need to do is circumvent the system by clicking any other state. If it brings you to a waiting room, you can wait or try another state. (I've had good luck with trying California and Texas.)
Once you have the answered some of the screening questions and confirmed the state you want to get the vaccine in, you’ll get to the scheduler page where you can put in different zip codes. Make sure to get THROUGH the questions and to the actual scheduler page. I've found that if you stop short of the scheduler page, after some amount of time, it'll all reset and you'll have to start all over at page 1 anyway.
Keep THIS window open!! For extra measure, you. can repeat step 1 on another device: your computer, your laptop, your iPad, your cell phone, etc. although you'll only need one to make you appointment. I've booked several successfully just on my phone. You can try to look for appointments midday or later but chances are, you won’t find anything.
Step 2: wake up absurdly Early (4-7AM)
Once you’ve got the scheduling page up, you’re ready to find an appointment! My three days of experience so far tell me that the appointments drop around 4-6am or each day. Once you’re awake and ready to go, try different city names and zip codes in your state starting with the ones closest to you. If you’re like me and were awake at 4:45am this morning, you can probably get an appointment right away within a 10-15 minutes drive from your home. I've been able to get appointments at latest around 8am, but that required a lot of luck, typing in different zip codes, and refreshing the page!
STEP 3: KEEP tRYING ZIP CODES AND REFRESHING
If you're not able to find appointments right away, keep trying different zip codes that are well-spaced out to broaden your search area. Do these in rapid succession and appointments may pop up. The later in the morning (like after 6:30am), the more you'll have to do this to find an appointment and the less selection you will have. Once you find something that is even remotely possible, CLICK ON IT ASAP! I've scheduled for friends where they weren't sure about a time slot but, by the time they decided, they were all gone. Act quickly! You can always easily cancel your appointment later if it doesn't work out.
Step 4: schedule your appointment and fill out Your iNformation
If you’re getting Moderna or Pfizer which are both two-dose vaccines, you’ll be asked to schedule both appointments at the same time (another great advantage to booking through CVS). If you’re getting Janssen, a single-dose vaccine, you'll only need to schedule one appointment.
Step 5: confirm Your apPoIntment details and do not close the browser!!!
I like to take a screenshot of the confirmation page for good measure since this is your ticket that you’ll show to the pharmacist when you go to your appointment. ***The most important part of this whole thing is that you DO NOT CLOSE OUT OF THE BROWSER! This is your chance to schedule another appointment super fast - click the browser’s back button a couple times and then click through the steps again. It should allow you to access the scheduler page all over again, completely bypassing the waiting room everyone frustratingly gets stuck on for hours. Call your eligible friends, family, and colleagues and get them vaccinated too!
May the odds ever be in your favor!