Trying To Schedule A COVID-19 Vaccination In MA? Good Luck

MASSACHUSETTS — Last week, Massachusetts gave the green light for all adults to get COVID-19 booster shots. That followed an announcement earlier this month, after the vaccine was approved for kids between the ages of 5 and 11, when Gov. Charlie Baker said the state did not "anticipate any supply issues."

"With this mixed model of providers, nearly every Massachusetts child lives within 30 minutes of a vaccine clinic," Baker said.

That may be true, but try telling that to people trying to schedule vaccination appointments.

From CVS's user-unfriendly scheduling Website to unexplained appointment cancellations at Walgreens, Massachusetts residents are getting frustrated by their efforts to get the shot. Despite the state's abundant supply, patients are spending hours trying to book appointments. When they succeed, those appointments are often at inconvenient times, like 11 p.m. and 1 a.m.

A CVS spokesperson noted the company has administered 38 million coronavirus tests and 43 million COVID-19 vaccines at its more than 10,000 locations in the U.S.

"We maintain a strong commitment to vaccine and testing equity and continue to optimize site locations and targeted outreach initiatives in order to reach vulnerable populations," Tara Burke said in a statement.

Patch has asked Walgreens — the other big private-sector provider of COVID-19 vaccinations in Massachusetts — for comment and will update this story when we hear back.

Burke's statement did not address specific customer complaints that were forwarded by Patch, including no record of appointments made online when the patient arrived at the pharmacy.

"I showed up, told the pharmacist I needed to get my booster, and he just looked at me like I was crazy," said Anand Sitaram of Stoughton, who scheduled a vaccine appointment at the Randolph CVS at 1 a.m. on Nov. 19. "He said the latest they ever scheduled them was 11 PM. And he said I wasn't in the system. I showed him my confirmation email, but he wouldn't give me the booster since I wasn't in the system."

Sitaram tried to schedule another appointment — this one for 11 p.m. the next day at the Mansfield CVS — and then received an automated email saying he had canceled the appointment. He contacted CVS to tell them he still wanted the appointment and had not canceled it.

"They couldn't tell me why they had decided to cancel it, but it could be due to scheduling problems or vaccine availability or some other thing. So once again I had no appointment with CVS," Sitaram said in his email to Patch. "To add insult to injury, at about 1 a.m. that night, I got the same automated email from CVS saying they were canceling that original appointment (for 24 hours EARLIER) in Randolph."

Also on Patch: MA Hospitals Told To Reduce Elective Surgeries As Cases Surge

The scarcity of appointments comes as Massachusetts and other New England states see a surge in coronavirus cases, and as many residents plan to resume holiday gatherings that were canceled during the height of the pandemic in 2020.

As of Monday, the 7-day average of COVID-19 hospitalizations was 647, up more than 20 percent since the beginning of the month. Of the 708 coronavirus patients hospitalized in Massachusetts on Monday, 149 were in intensive care. Of those, 81 were on ventilators. Case counts have shown similar increase during November.

The state's COVID-19 vaccine Website refers patients to the scheduling Websites set up by private pharmacies.

And therein lies the problem: Pharmacies like CVS and Walgreens are the places most Massachusetts residents go to look for vaccination appointments: about one-in-three Americans vaccinated against the coronavirus got their shot at a pharmacy, and the companies have been credited as a vital part of the unprecedented inoculation effort.

"My husband and I tried for two days, both Walgreens and CVS sites, trying dates all the way out to Dec. 9th...with no luck," Linda Allain said in an email to Patch.

The CVS site gave her a list of all locations on the dates she tried to schedule a vaccination, even if no appointments were available at the CVS store on the date Allain chose. That meant clicking on each individual store for each day, only to find there were no available appointments.

The Allains gave up on CVS and tried Walgreens. But the Walgreens scheduling site did not include a "next" button allowing her to look for appointments after she completed a questionnaire confirming she was eligible for the booster.

Frustrated, Allain contacted her local board of health, which referred her to a vaccination clinic at the South Hamilton senior center.

"What a project," Allain said.

Dave Copeland writes for Patch and can be reached at dave.copeland@patch.com or by calling 617-433-7851. Follow him on Twitter (@CopeWrites) and Facebook (/copewrites).