Plan Your Vaccine Website

There is a new website aimed at helping people negotiate the wasteland of finding coronavirus vaccines: Plan Your Vaccine.com.

The good news is this is not another government website, but one curated by Comcast NBCUniversal. See their announcement.

Basically their effort is summed up in this statement: “The COVID-19 vaccine rollout is an incredibly complicated challenge, but it’s a critical step to getting our country back to normal,” said Adam Miller, chief administration officer, Comcast Corporation, and executive vice president, NBCUniversal. “We have the unique ability to leverage our considerable platforms and resources across Comcast NBCUniversal to raise awareness and help people navigate the ever-changing array of information on this issue.”

As a person who has been trying to navigate the "vaccine hunt," it can be very frustrating — and I'm not totally helpless when it comes to working with computers and websites. 

My journey to getting my first Moderna vaccine went like this:

• Register on the state website
• Start filling out applications for appointments at the time specified to submit an application
• Fill out the forms, including having to re-enter data in the same application session, like birthday, address, etc. Fill out the forms and get the message that all appointments have been filled 
• My wife, Mary, has been the chief "investigator" and following all leads

So, how did I get my vaccination? My son's mother-in-law is hyper interested in the topic and trying to help people. She knows a law enforcement officer who is trying to help people get the vaccine. A local pharmacy will tell him when they have a few doses left for the day, and then he contacted the mother-in-law and she called us and said they had one vaccine left and my name will be given to them. It was 5 p.m., so I hustled down, gave them my name and medical card, signed some papers, waited five minutes, got the vaccine and then had to wait 15 minutes more. I'm scheduled to go back on March 9 for my second shot. I was back home by 6:30 p.m. 

Atypical, but I bet one of the many ways people are navigating the system "such as it is." My wife is finally registered for a mass vaccination site and scheduled for Feb. 20 at 5:15p.m.