Monday, April 19, the COVID vaccine became available to anyone over the age of 16 in Massachusetts. I had been pre-registered for the vaccine for months prior to my age group opening up, yet I still struggled to get an appointment. I decided to write this article to help other students in the Boston area with getting their vaccine. This is all from my experience, but be sure to check the official Massachusetts government page for all updated information.
Step 1: Check Major Vaccine Locations
In the Boston area, there are 7 major locations. I first started trying to find an appointment with these locations. Even after being pre-registered for months prior to my age group opening up, I still wasn’t able to get an appointment in time before the spring semester ended. I called several locations and was told by all of them that all appointments are only available online via a link emailed or texted to you. Without the link, you could not make an appointment. So for me, this was a dead end.
Step 2: CVS Locations
The next place I checked for the vaccine was local CVS locations. Although there are 2 CVS locations close to Emmanuel College, both locations were very difficult to find an available appointment. So yet again, this was a dead end.
Step 3: Walgreens Locations
After the major vaccine locations and the CVS locations were no luck, I decided to try Walgreens locations. After creating a profile and filling out a questionnaire I was able to create an appointment. There were a ton of appointment times available and plenty of locations to choose from.
So my final advice to anyone still in search of a vaccine appointment is: if the 7 major locations are no luck, try CVS and Walgreens. And if all three of those options fail, try checking out websites like vaccinefinder.org or vaxfinder.mas.gov.
Best of luck to anyone in search of a vaccine!