Searching for a COVID vaccine appointment? This Facebook group wants to help you

Lena Evans displays the Facebook group she started called San Diego Vaccine Hunters.

San Diego Vaccine Hunters offers tips and tricks on how to secure your shot

By Jonathan WosenBiotech reporter

April 5, 2021 5:59 PM PT

An increasingly popular Facebook group is helping thousands of San Diegans figure out when and where they can get a coronavirus vaccine.

The group, aptly named San Diego Vaccine Hunters, shares tips and tricks on how to secure an appointment at sites run by the county, health systems, local pharmacies and other vaccine providers.

Longtime philanthropist and Rancho Santa Fe resident Lena Evans created the group in early February after her own experience struggling to get her shot. She realized that if she was confused, she probably wasn’t the only one. So Evans collected and posted all the information she could find from local news outlets, government websites and social media on how and where to get a COVID-19 vaccine in San Diego County.

It didn’t take long for word of the group to spread. San Diego Vaccine Hunters now has more than 6,000 members and counting, with about 1,200 users joining over the past week.

Having such a sizable community comes in handy. The county has more than 150 vaccine sites run by local health systems, pharmacies and the county itself, with new locations popping up regularly. Knowing what sites are open, which ones run smoothly, whether they tend to have extra doses and where and when to check for appointments is no easy task.

Case in point: On Monday, Kaiser Permanente opened a new vaccination site for both Kaiser members and non-members at 6602 Convoy Ct., which will begin immunizing 500 people a day but can ramp up to 2,000 a day in the coming weeks. Meanwhile, the Del Mar Fairgrounds superstation, run by Scripps Health, will be closed Wednesday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday of this week.

The ever-changing details of the region’s rollout can be headache-inducing. But that’s where the group comes in, Evans says.

“It’s really the place to be because people will stand in line and report right now exactly what’s happening: ‘I’m standing in line at Balboa Park, there are five of us here.’ And then they continue with providing information until the time that they received their vaccine,” Evans said. “Information like that, that’s super dynamic and immediate, is what is really powerful.”

In addition to allowing users to ask and answer questions about vaccine locations, side effects and related information, the group features a guide created by Evans and member Scott Riggs. The guide includes tips on the best times to look for appointments through local pharmacies, suggests automated Twitter accounts to follow for regular updates when appointments become available, and provides links for those willing to volunteer at an immunization site to get a vaccine.

The group is private, but Evans serves as the moderator and has been accepting anyone who wants to join. She says that she reads every post and comment, but only removes those who post antivaccine messages or other misleading material.

“Vaccination is a gift, and the gift of the group is to help other people and I am 100 percent in support of that and want to help,” Evans said. “Obviously, at some point, the need won’t be so immediate because we’ll all be vaccinated. But that’s going to take a while.”

Plenty of Californians are still searching for a vaccine these days. Last Thursday, the state opened eligibility to anyone 50 and up. Within the first 12 hours of the day, 837,000 people visited MyTurn (myturn.ca.gov), the state’s vaccine notification and scheduling system. One week prior, 679,000 users visited the site, meaning that activity increased by 23 percent.

Starting April 15, all Californians 16 and up will become eligible for a coronavirus vaccine. Local officials hope to have 1.9 million San Diegans fully vaccinated by July 1. So far, around 605,000 residents have reached that mark, which requires two shots of the Moderna or Pfizer vaccines but a single dose from Johnson & Johnson.

On Monday, the county reported 127 new coronavirus infections and no additional deaths. Despite reports of an uptick in cases in other parts of the U.S., over the past two weeks, just 2.2 percent of coronavirus tests have come back positive in San Diego County. There are 189 San Diegans in the hospital with COVID-19; about a month ago, the count was 351.

For additional information about San Diego Vaccine Hunters, visit www.facebook.com/groups/sandiegovaccinehunters.

What you need to know about San Diego's COVID-19 vaccine rollout

UPDATED May 5, 2021 | 9:16 AM

Am I eligible for the vaccine?

Anyone 16 and up is eligible.

Where can I get my shot?

The region has mass vaccination sites in La Mesa, La Jolla, Chula Vista, San Marcos and Del Mar. There are also many smaller sites throughout San Diego County, some run by Sharp HealthCare and Rady Children’s Hospital. The county’s COVID-19 vaccine page lists the various locations and ways to sign up; we have a similar resource on the U-T’s website. Local pharmacies are an option, too. CVS is now offering walk-in (appointment-free) vaccination as well as same-day appointments. If you have a Facebook account, you may want to join the San Diego Vaccine Hunters group, where more than 6,000 people ask and answer questions about how to book an appointment.

If you want to make an appointment at one of the smaller county-run sites, you can do so through an online system called MyTurn (myturn.ca.gov). Several of these sites are now also accepting walk-ins.

County officials have said that seniors who don’t have a computer can call 2-1-1 for help scheduling vaccination appointments. There’s also a group called San Diego Vaccine Angels, which is helping seniors and those who aren’t tech savvy book appointments.

Health care providers such as UC San Diego Health, the San Diego VA, Sharp and Scripps have been reaching out to older patients within their systems to schedule appointments, but that is happening slowly and unevenly between providers depending on how much vaccine they have.

K-12 teachers and staff won’t have to schedule their own vaccine appointments, as that will be handled through a program run by the San Diego County Office of Education and California Schools Voluntary Employees Benefits Association (VEBA), an organization that offers health care benefits to school employees. Scripps Health will work with law enforcement agencies to ensure that officer are immunized and San Diego firefighters will go out into the fields to vaccinate farm workers.

Can I pick which vaccine I get?

Sort of. Some of the the county’s vaccine locations only offer the Moderna vaccine. Others offer the Pfizer vaccine, such as the Del Mar Fairgrounds superstation.

But both of those vaccines use the same approach to spark immunity against the coronavirus and are about 95 percent effective at preventing you from getting sick with COVID-19.

Speaking of which, you’ll need to come back for a booster shot three or four weeks later for Pfizer’s and Moderna’s vaccines, respectively. That second dose maximizes immunity against the virus. When you get your first shot, you’ll receive a vaccination record card reminding you to return for that next appointment.

The most recently authorized vaccine, made by Johnson & Johnson, only requires one shot.

How much does the shot cost?

The shot is free — though, of course, the U.S. government used taxpayer dollars to purchase the doses. Vaccine providers can bill your insurance an administration fee, but there’s no copay. And if you don’t have insurance, you’ll still get the vaccine at no cost.

What can I do after getting vaccinated?

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention say it’s OK to get together with small numbers of other vaccinated people indoors — with or without a mask — once you’ve been fully vaccinated (e.g. a dinner party). If you received the Pfizer or Moderna vaccine, that would be two weeks after your second dose. If you received the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, that would be two weeks after your shot.

The CDC says it’s also OK for fully vaccinated people to gather with unvaccinated people who live together, as long as those people are at low risk of developing severe COVID-19. And the agency has said that fully vaccinated people can travel within the U.S. without getting a coronavirus test before or after their trip or needing to quarantine after their travels. Those who travel internationally won’t need a negative coronavirus test unless it’s required by the nation they’re traveling to, but will still need a negative test result before boarding a flight back to the U.S. and must get another test within three to five days of returning from their trip.

Caution is still key. The CDC says to avoid medium- or large-sized gatherings regardless of vaccination status, and to wear a mask during large outdoor gatherings. Part of the issue is that you don’t have to have COVID-19 symptoms to spread the coronavirus, and many people still haven’t been vaccinated yet. Researchers say that throwing caution to the wind could further fuel the spread of the virus and even lead to new strains that vaccines don’t work against — undermining the whole immunization campaign.