So I finally became eligible for COVID vaccination in CA last Thursday. This morning I decided to see how long I would need to wait for an appointment through my healthcare provider, Kaiser Permanente of SoCal.

First step was to create a user account on the KP web site. Five minutes and done.

Second step was to try to schedule an appointment. Following the appropriate links on the KP web site, I selected a location close to my office, only to find that the first available appointment was in the second week of May. Not good, especially since I am scheduled to fly to Philadelphia in a little over two weeks.

But then I wondered: What would happen if I didn’t limit my request to a specific location? So I tried that...

...and found a motherlode of appointments available TODAY. There were a TON of appointment times available throughout the week at the KP Cal State Long Beach vaccination site. I literally could have had the shot within thirty minutes of making this discovery if I could have gotten to the site quickly enough. I made an appointment for 3:10 PM, however.

Arrived at the site about twenty minutes early, was processed immediately and received my first shot (Moderna) within ten minutes of parking my car — and less than four hours after making my appointment!

They keep you onsite for fifteen minutes after you receive the shot to watch for any allergic reactions, which I did not experience. I walked out five minutes after the scheduled time for my appointment. I noticed on my way out that a few dozen people were queued up for processing — good decision on my part to arrive early, it turned out.

The entire process went smoother than poop through a goose, as the saying goes.

The moral of this story, however, is that with a little leg work it may be possible to get a vaccination appointment sooner rather than later. I especially encourage any KP members to show a little flexibility in choosing a vaccination site — it could pay off in spades.

---

It is what it is.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/05/2021 07:31PM by N-OS X-tasy!.

KP Leader!!

My family joined KP in the 60s when we lived in CA Bay Area. I moved up to E WA in 93, where the closest KP facility was near Portland OR, five hours drive, so I joined a local co-op. A few years ago the co-op was taken over by KP, so I'm a happy camper. KP has covered a slew of specialized, out-of-network care for me for for most of my life. I'm a fan.

---

Three days of searching every zip code for a hundred miles on the site of every provider with the vaccine every few hours, I found one appointment 44 miles away.

One.

I took it.

---

I put myself on the KP list long before was eligible and was contacted to make an appt pretty fast.

Quote
Sarcany
Three days of searching every zip code for a hundred miles on the site of every provider with the vaccine every few hours, I found one appointment 44 miles away.

One.

I took it.

On the plus side, it means people are getting vaccinated in your area. I could have had mine a week earlier but chose to wait for a nearly on campus clinic where I could walk over and have it done instead of taking time off.

---

C(-)ris
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Throwback Thursday Signature:




Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/06/2021 06:01PM by C(-)ris.

We all seem to be weighing continued risk vs. driving distance vs. how soon we can get an appointment. It's sort of a minimization problem, where distance is treated as close, middling, and too far, and time is this week vs. this month vs. a month or more away. I remember that I could get an appointment within 3 days for a twenty minute drive and I took it. I could have gotten an appointment right across the bridge in Long Beach but it would have taken 3 weeks. I was not willing to extend the risk for the 3 weeks, but I would not have accepted an appointment a hundred miles away in exchange for the two or three weeks.

PS: 165 million doses now have been given in the U.S.

We are at 61 million fully vaccinated.

This strikes me as a pretty good performance for a project that only started in December.

Yep, it's great for those on the upside of the digital divide. Others, not so much.

---

....KP.......duty......???

---

_____________________________________

I reject your reality and substitute my own!

We can't be safe until the rest of the world gets vaccines which today they are not getting. Variants that will eventually become vaccine resistant are developing daily. Brazil is a disaster and promises to become a worldwide threat for the future.

Good on ya!

Keep an eye out for the 2nd vaccination-a number of folks are having a day or two of side effects.

Quote
anonymouse1
Good on ya!

Keep an eye out for the 2nd vaccination-a number of folks are having a day or two of side effects.

Congratulations N-OS X-tasy!!

Day after my #2 Moderna, shoulder felt like grandpa's mule had kicked me. Was out of action, that day, and somewhat OoA for a couple more days.

Netflix was handy…

---

=wr=

Congrats!

---

Saint Cloud, Minnesota, where the weather is wonderful even when it isn't.

Quote
C(-)ris

Quote
Sarcany
Three days of searching every zip code for a hundred miles on the site of every provider with the vaccine every few hours, I found one appointment 44 miles away.

One.

I took it.

On the plus side, it means people are getting vaccinated in your area.

It does, but also, our state government has been sending most of the vaccine to less-populated parts of the state where they don't need it and now have a surplus going to waste. It seems that they are more focused on rewarding political donors than with vaccinating the folks in urban regions.

They've been dramatically incompetent.

---

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/06/2021 09:28AM by Sarcany.

Quote
Sarcany

Quote
C(-)ris

Quote
Sarcany
Three days of searching every zip code for a hundred miles on the site of every provider with the vaccine every few hours, I found one appointment 44 miles away.

One.

I took it.

On the plus side, it means people are getting vaccinated in your area.

It does, but also, our state government has been sending most of the vaccine to less-populated parts of the state where they don't need it and now have a surplus going to waste. It seems that they are more focused on rewarding political donors than with vaccinating the folks in urban regions.

They've been dramatically incompetent.

Republican governor?

---

rj
AKA
Vreemac, Moth of the Future

in Ohio you have to 'have a code' to be able to actually find available vaccines. And those codes are hidden away. Fortunately Facebook groups share them. It's frustrating, but a lot of people are getting through it. Got my #1 last week by driving into East Cleveland, which I would never do at night. It's a damn combat zone. Mrs. cbelt3 gets hers tomorrow afternoon at a mass vaccination event (for which the FB group gave me a code).

Now working on getting my adult kids to get vaccinated.

Logistics are no fun when everyone gets to reinvent the wheel. For my state, the local county is one avenue for starting the process. They have you go through the questionnaire and at the end pick a date/time ... when I did this about 2-3 weeks ago the displayed provider was the county itself (drive through).

Today, when looking to book Jab #2 I now see Walmart has been added to the mix—- for new vaccinations. My question is, if I had registered today for the first jab with the county, would they have shown me Walmart was a choice? I can’t assume, because the doorway is different after Jab #1. I can’t go back in and re-register with the county to see. I only saw Walmart listed because I’d gone in a different way.

Could I have today skipped that and gone to the Walmart site for my 2nd jab? Dunno but the only requirement at Walmart’s site was that I tick a box for age 16+, and the resulting questionnaire never verified if I had already been jabbed before. All they say is that my info would be shared to the state db of course. << I did that for my 18 yr old son.

One thing different about going with Walmart. Their site says they want to see your insurance card for billing. With the county, I didn’t need to show proof. That’s a major oversight if these “3rd party” providers don’t have a way to just bill whomever on their own.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/06/2021 02:40PM by deckeda.

Quote
deckeda
Logistics are no fun when everyone gets to reinvent the wheel. For my state, the local county is one avenue for starting the process. They have you go through the questionnaire and at the end pick a date/time ... when I did this about 2-3 weeks ago the displayed provider was the county itself (drive through).

Today, when looking to book Jab #2 I now see Walmart has been added to the mix—- for new vaccinations. My question is, if I had registered today for the first jab with the county, would they have shown me Walmart was a choice? I can’t assume, because the doorway is different after Jab #1. I can’t go back in and re-register with the county to see. I only saw Walmart listed because I’d gone in a different way.

Could I have today skipped that and gone to the Walmart site for my 2nd jab? Dunno but the only requirement at Walmart’s site was that I tick a box for age 16+, and the resulting questionnaire never verified if I had already been jabbed before. All they say is that my info would be shared to the state db of course. << I did that for my 18 yr old son.

One thing different about going with Walmart. Their site says they want to see your insurance card for billing. With the county, I didn’t need to show proof. That’s a major oversight if these “3rd party” providers don’t have a way to just bill whomever on their own.

Pretty sure the county doesn't bill anyone. They eat the cost/have volunteers/military/guard distributing. The vaccine is free the labor is not. The "3rd party" providers are looking for someone to charge for the labor.

---

C(-)ris
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Throwback Thursday Signature:




Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/06/2021 06:04PM by C(-)ris.