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Getting my COVID-19 vaccine in Silicon Valley
When the pandemic first started, I wanted to journal and write about my experiences during this time. A year into the pandemic and I’ve yet to write anything. Earlier this week, I was blessed to get my first shot of the Pfizer vaccine at the Mountain View Community Center. I’ve spoken to a few different people who’ve had their shots in the Bay Area and elsewhere. Since it seems experiences are varied, here’s a short account of my experience.
Getting an appointment
The hardest part of my experience was actually getting an appointment. A few weeks ago, I signed up with Dr. B, a service that’s supposed to notify you when extra doses are available. But then a few weeks passed and I hadn’t heard anything from Dr. B. I started hearing of people getting vaccine appointments in the Bay Area through other channels. So I decided to more actively look for an appointment. Vaccine appointments (at least in the Bay Area) are sadly decentralized — you can’t just go to one website and look for an appointment. After a few days of sporadically looking, I realized that I needed a system. I bookmarked a bunch of sites that offered vaccines in my area:
