After daylong struggle, city woman snags appointment
STAMFORD — Stamford resident Tina Bartels said she got up around 7:15 a.m. on Friday, went straight to her laptop and started refreshing some tabs that she had purposefully left open.
Bartels falls into the 45-to-54 age group that just became eligible to get the COVID-19 vaccine.
When she checked online, Stamford Health had no vaccine appointments available for the next few days. The CVS website
“This morning was a 10 out of 10,” in terms of stress, she said.
said all appointments across the state were already booked. She also checked Walgreens — no luck.
“I’m trying all these little disparate websites — CVS, Walgreens, Stamford Health — and they just say that they don’t have any availability right now — check back,” Bartels said.
Stamford Health spokesperson Andie Jodko said the system releases appointments per state guidance.
“As of this morning we had first dose appointments available to book through April 15,” Jodko said. “Because a large number of newly eligible individuals registered for first dose appointments today, our schedules are now full. We are constantly evaluating our vaccine supply and we will continue to open up vaccination appointment slots as we receive additional supplies.”
Bartels wrote a post on Facebook asking her friends for advice. One friend suggested that she call Yale New Haven Health. She called the system twice — and the second time, someone helped her find an appointment in Milford for April 18.
She said she still plans to check the other websites again, in case an appointment sooner than April 18 opens because someone canceled.
Earlier Friday, as she struggled to make an appointment, Bartels’ husband — who, like her, is in his early 50s — ran to her saying: “I got in! I got in!” He scheduled an appointment in Greenwich through VAMS. She then started the process of registering with VAMS.
Overall, she said her experience was “stressful” and “confusing.”
“This morning was a 10 out of 10,” in terms of stress, she said.
Bartels works remotely as a business development representative for software company Systech, which is headquartered in Princeton, N.J.
She said when she learned that she would soon become eligible to get the vaccine, her “anxiety went up a little bit.”
“I’ve been hearing it’s hard to get an appointment,” Bartels said. “I knew it would be a challenge today, but I was still hopeful. So I’m sitting here staring at my screen. … I have a swivel chair, so I’m working and then I turn around every so often and play for a few moments in the portals and then go back to work.”
Bartels described the last year of her life during the pandemic as “anxiety-riddled.”
“I just think there’s an underlying current in me of stress,” she said. “I can’t really put my finger on it. It’s just that we don’t have our freedom anymore. I don’t even know when I go out if I’ve been exposed to COVID.”
Vaccination eligibility is set to expand in Connecticut to people as young as 16 on April 5.