I found this when trying to help my dad who is in NC:
https://myspot.nc.gov/
It is a state run site that is supposed to help you find where you go to get the vaccine.
I'd also check the websites for your city or county health departments as they may ave a wait list or email list. That is how I got my appointment here in TX - received an alert from the health department that they were opining up some additional appointments and managed to click quickly enough.
I have an ignorant cousin in VA who has been one of those overblown plandemic types. And, of course, his whole family had COVID over the holidays. He is a teacher and had his first vaccine recently. Has complained, almost bitterly, about how his reaction to the vaccine was worse than his case of COVID. I would try to point out the fact that it is a good sign and his strong reaction is probably due to his having it, but I have decided it is not worth the effort. Trying to educate the stubbornly ignorant.
I'm 67 years old and 1B in my state (Virginia) and have been registered on the first regional, and then state-wide system for arranging vaccination appointments. Suddenly yesterday, after getting weekly reminders saying it could be weeks before my turn, I (and many friends) got an e-mail inviting me to a local site either Friday or Saturday, with open slots every ten minutes all day both days. It's Johnson and Johnson, baby! One shot only. A mere week after it got its emergency approval. I consider that pretty fast. So things are ramping up and happening, everyone, most encouraging, needless to say.
Not quite 24 hours after my 2nd shot, I’m very achy and feel, for lack of a better word, crummy. My head especially hurts, joints #2 on the list. Basically just sleeping it off.
I don't know anything about the situation that led to Jason's getting the vaccine (congrats, Jason!), but I'll share a few reasons that people might use to get the first and omit the second.
1) They had a bad reaction to the first shot and they and/or their physician decided it wasn't worth risking the second one, since reactions are generally worse to the second shot. I personally know of two people that opted out of the second shot because of this; one who developed all-over itching about an hour or two after the shot and ended up having to go to the ER for care and another who had fever, shaking chills, nausea and vomiting, and a rash that lasted 5 days, unable to really eat any food solid food for almost a week.
2) They have been reading about how a single shot actually provides much better protection than has been reported, and maybe even heard President Biden say he was prioritizing first shots over second shots, and decided that one was probably enough. Perhaps they were even magnanimous and thought it would be better for another person to get vaccinated instead.
3) They had Covid-19 last year, with typical symptoms and a positive test, and maybe their physician told them that, in that situation, getting one shot is equivalent to a naive person getting two.
4) They got the first shot and between then and the second shot became debilitated or died. Given the ages of the people getting the first shot a month ago, there are likely some people who fit this description. Hank Aaron, for one.
5) They got the first shot because they thought it was a good idea, but pretty much as soon as they announced to friends/family that they got the shot, they faced a backlash, especially from family members, about how terrible the shot is, and how the family members "can't believe you did that!" and then they sent them a bunch of links to fraudulent websites or printed out articles about how the vaccine will alter their DNA, or how it will implant a chip in their arm so that Bill Gates can track their activities, or what have you, and then they said that if they survived the first vaccine without getting said damage, they should consider themselves lucky and make sure, whatever they do, that they don't go get the second shot.
That's just a few that I can think of off the top of my head.
"We are not provided with wisdom, we must discover it for ourselves, after a journey through the wilderness which no one else can take for us, an effort which no one can spare us, for our wisdom is the point of view from which we come at last to regard the world." --M. Proust
My wife got her first (Moderna) shot late yesterday (just as we pulling into the parking lot of the school where the shots were being administered, she got a text message that her appointment had been cancelled which, luckily, turned out to be a false alarm??). Just some pain in her arm today and a mild feeling of overall achy. Nothing too serious. We were a little concerned because she is allergic to shell fish.
Second appointment is already scheduled for four weeks.
Other than the almost impossibility of getting an appointment online in Massachusetts, the actual process of giving the vaccine shot worked quite well and was well run and efficient.
When I asked at the clinic, they said some people were cancelling because they did not feel well after the first shot and did not want to go through that against with a second shot. So, item #1 on rsvman's above list. The clinic is vaccinating about 50 people per day and she said they get 2 or 3 per day (folks scheduled for either 1st or 2nd doses) who don't show up for an appointment... and that is when she calls people like me and my wife. They have a waiting list of about 50 people at a time and it took us about 2 weeks to go from waiting list to getting our shots.
Why are you wasting time here when you could be wasting it by listening to the latest episode of the DBR Podcast?
My aunt (age 74) was having severe migraines for a few weeks after her first shot. She and her doctor were seriously considering skipping the second shot. Until Covid struck she was the caretaker several days a week for her young grandchildren, and her son-in-law (father of said grandchildren) is a nurse who is exposed to a lot, so it was very important that she got max protection for whenever she feels comfortable going back to help with her grandchildren.
She had various scans and they couldn't find anything wrong with her, and after a few weeks the migraines went away so she got her second dose. She had her second shot about a week ago with almost no reaction.
As a biologist, I worry a little bit that deliberate one-dose strategies like in the UK may select for nasty new variants: mostly killing something off is great way to pressure it to evolve. That's another reason why the first-dose efficacy numbers are important, including against already-existing variants.
FYI, my wife and I both had significant reactions to the (Moderna) second dose - fever, achy, headache, etc., starting 12+ hrs after the injection and persisting for about a day. She says that means we're still young, immunologically at least (we are early/mid 40s). Nothing other than arm soreness from the first dose.
Long story short.
Here in High Point NC neighbor who works in the insurance business knocks on our door looking for over 65’s. We are not. After telling him we are 59 and 60 we get a “let me check” then all of a sudden we are scheduled for his Saturday at midday. Moderna!
We are beyond excited...
Kyle gets BUCKETS!
https://youtu.be/NJWPASQZqLc
Most of my family is in the uk and my sister told be today that 40% of adults have got their first jab (shot). My father is 86 and got fist first and will not get his second until early May but as I see it it’s not a one-dose strategy. Personally I think the UK strategy makes sense.
Kyle gets BUCKETS!
https://youtu.be/NJWPASQZqLc