I made an appointment last week to get the seasonal flu vaccine and the updated Covid vaccines today. This was at a major national pharmacy chain (not the one which voluntarily pulled Plan B from its shelves). I was not successful at getting vaccinated. I'm grumpy about it.

I went to the location at which I made the appointment. They couldn't find my appointment in their system. They even went as far as telling me that my appointment was actually at another location. But they didn't actually have any vaccine in stock anyway. They were turning away other people with appointments.

[I went to the other location, and they were very clear that I did not have an appointment there, and actually printed out my appointment info so that I have something to show the first location. Though that location was also turning people away, saying that their appointments were at other locations, including the one which doesn't have any vaccine.]

And they didn't seem to have any way to efficiently reschedule. If they couldn't give you the vaccine because they didn't have stock, you're just out of luck. Make a new appointment online, I guess? Though do note that they're basically all booked up for the next two weeks — which is how far in advance their booking system goes.

So everyone who got their act together early to book their flu & Covid vaccines as soon as possible has their appointments pushed back by weeks, during a spike.

I called back the first location to ask if there were any faster way to reschedule, and they basically told me to pound sand and wanted to get me off the phone as fast as possible. They did say that they were expecting a vaccine shipment tomorrow. I think I'm just going to go back to the first location tomorrow morning and ask them to honor yesterday's appointment.

But what a mess. What utter nonsense. You shouldn't need an appointment to get a vaccine. You should just be able to walk in to any pharmacy anywhere and get it. But if there is an appointment system, people who make appointments should get vaccinated. It should be hard to avoid being vaccinated, rather than a challenge even if you do everything right. 

 The vaccine doesn't work