Pharmacies and health officials are making a request to Americans who have received their Covid-19 vaccines: Cancel the other shots you have booked.
As vaccines become eligible and more places offer shots, many people sign up for multiple appointments and don’t back off from the appointments they don’t need. The resulting influx of no-shows is forcing vaccine providers, from pharmacies to community clinics, to find last-minute replacements so doses aren’t wasted.
In North Carolina, a county health director goes door to door looking for buyers for missed slots. A Midwestern retailer closed his waiting list and ordered employees to weed people who had made multiple appointments. On social media, it is increasingly common to see posts from health departments offering shots to anyone who could show up at a vaccination site.
“It makes for a crazy sprint at the end of the day,” said Raynard Washington, deputy health director for the Mecklenburg County health department in North Carolina. As many as 10% of people don’t show up at county-run vaccination sites – or hundreds of doses per week – in part because they don’t cancel multiple appointments.
Appointments remain difficult to score in many parts of the country, even as the overall supply of vaccines and the rate of vaccination improve. Some people make multiple bookings hoping to get vaccinated earlier or sometimes because they don’t receive or see confirmation emails, according to pharmacies and local vaccination sites. Others receive shots at pop-up vaccination events before scheduled appointments and do not notify health care providers.