CVS COVID vaccination rollout poorly coordinated
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| This store in Annandale has begun providing COVID vaccinations to people 65+. |
The CVS COVID vaccine rollout in Virginia has been confusing and frustrating, Dr. Danny Avula, the state’s vaccine coordinator, acknowledged.
As part of a federal vaccine partnership, CVS is providing 26,000 doses a week to 36 pharmacies across the state, including the CVS on Little River Turnpike in Annandale.
Vaccine appointments are already booked solid, but eligible people – those age 65 and older – should keep trying to register on the CVS website, as well as with the Fairfax County Health Department.
Registrations were initially supposed to open on Feb. 11, but CVS opened the registration process on Feb. 9, giving little time for coordination, Avula said during a media call Feb. 9.
The Virginia Department of Health had wanted CVS to provide early access to the system so that local health departments would be able to submit to CVS lists of people who had registered for vaccinations. “They weren’t able to do that,” Avula said. “The local health districts have a different registration process” so it was too burdensome for them to give people proof that they had registered.
Related story: CVS Health rolls out COVID vaccination program in Virginia
Vaccination appointments for CVS were only supposed to be available to people who had already signed up with the Fairfax County Health Department.
The VHD had hoped that by coordinating those systems, local health departments could move people off their waiting lists and have them get vaccinations elsewhere.
“The systems couldn’t be effectively integrated,” Avula said. Beginning next week, a centralized registration system should be in place. That couldn’t be done before, because the VDH wasn’t given enough lead time to work on syncing the systems. He called the effort “insanely complicated.”
The CVS program prioritizes people 65 and over. People in that group have the highest risk of serious illness and death, he said.
But some people who registered with CVS falsely claimed they were 65+ and had registered with the Health Department and CVS didn’t have a way to verify that.
People will have to submit proof of age to CVS, however, when they show up for a vaccination. Anyone who is not 65+ will have their appointment canceled. Younger people with an underlying health condition should register with the Health Department.
Related story: CVS expands COVID vaccination program to Northern Virginia
The federal pharmacy program will phase in vaccination clinics at Walgreens, Giant, Safeway, and other stores as vaccine supplies increase. Avula hopes those pharmacies will have the technological capacity to upload people from health departments’ registration lists.
When the pharmacy vaccination program was developed, the CDC asked states to choose a single pharmacy to start with. Virginia chose CVS because it has a large footprint across the state and is in the best locations to reach the most vulnerable populations.
On Feb. 12, the Fairfax County Health Department plans to release a new vaccine dashboard, indicating the registration date the department is now scheduling appointments for, how many people remain on the waitlist, the number of appointments offered, how many doses Fairfax County receives from VDH each week, how many are distributed each week, and the total number of doses administered by the Health Department.
The department also plans to send emails to everyone on the waitlist every Sunday to remind them they are still registered.
10 responses to “CVS COVID vaccination rollout poorly coordinated”
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What a disaster, every CVS location in VA is sold out. This is worse than buying tickets for Hamilton! CVS makes you go through a routine of about 5 pages of questions only to find out there are no vaccines available. Does CVS stand for Community Vaccines Soldout or Completely Validated Stupidity? I give up, my immunologist told me yesterday that he will double up on my steroid inhalant prescription from 100mg to 200mg for this has been keeping this virus at bay for asthma sufferers. The steroid is predicted to kill the virus and/or minimize symptoms based on current data. He also told me the District is doing much better than VA and MD on rolling out vaccinations.
DC has given 10.7% of their population a shot and Virginia has given 10.7% of their population a shot, so they seem to be about equal. Virginia has been improving their ranking among the states.
CVS did not tell people a correct date or a time when appointments would be available. It is ridiculous to expect people to try all day long to get an appointment when none are available and to expect people to try to guess when the appointments will open up again. CVS has to do better at informing people. Also, I didn't see the Annandale Pharmacy yesterday when I looked at the list of sites online. Maybe I missed it.
Try online daily at midnight. I was able to secure an appt at midnight last night but you must be quick as the slots filled up within 10 mins. Have your insurance card ready. They’ll give you the closest one possible. My mom is in Annandale and the closest cvs available was the Duke street location.
I appreciate your suggestion. As a senior citizen, I don't understand why CVS would offer appointments only at midnight. How many senior citizens are up that late? And if I try, does that mean that I have to stay up past midnight every night without knowing whether there are appointments available or not? This is not surprisingly a lousy system that CVS has implemented which does not meet the needs of the people for whom it is designed.
I tried at 12:00 AM last night and was not successful getting an appt. CVS website noted all booked in every location in VA.
Good news, I received FFX alert today with a link to check my registration status. When I did, it noted that the county sent me an email on 2/5 to schedule appt. I checked my emails again, it was titled "Notice of Appointment Confirmation. " I hit the link and BAM I scheduled a vaccine appointment for this Sunday at the Government Center! Wohooo!
The Fairfax County Health Department's covid vaccine sign-up for those 65+ was a scam. I signed up. Vaccines were supposed to be administered at an Inova location. When I heard nothing from the Health Department, I called and was informed Inova had run out of vaccine.
I subsequently learned that the state was about to distribute vaccines to CVS specifically for those who had signed up with county health departments. However, as we now know, thanks the the total incompetence of the state, the county, and CVS, the limited number of appointments for covid vaccines were given to anyone who was lucky enough to make an appointment on the CVS website at just the right time. I've tried CVS, Walgreens, and Giant over and over again — no appointments available.
On top of that, the design and usability of the vaccine appointment function on these websites are both absolutely terrible. And there is no accountability. Everyone involved in this fiasco will still have a job for years to come. American exceptionalism at its finest.
It is not a scam. FC is not giving shots via Inova, but in other locations. My mother got one in the Fairfax Pediatrics parking lot (that was amazingly easy) last weekend and my wife and I just got word this week that we are getting our shots on Sunday. If you signed up, then you will probably get your shot in order of when you signed up. Just relax. If you are not eligible for 1b, then you will need to wait for 1c.
I am absolutely not surprised that CVS bungled this. My job has CVS Caremark as their pharmacy benefits manager and from the beginning, although their website looks nice, it's a jumbled unconnected mess for ordering prescriptions.