An Unexpected Boon to America’s Vaccine Towns
Daniel Block
At 8 a.m. on February 14, the very minute New York made me eligible for a COVID-19 vaccine, I fired up my laptop and started looking for a shot. Over the course of five torturous minutes, I blasted my way through a laggy eligibility screener, waited for the confirmation page to unfreeze, and finally landed on the portal listing the state’s mass-vaccination sites. “Appointments available,” promised the Westchester County Center, the one closest to my house.
I clicked to sign up, but it was too late. Within 45 seconds, I moved on to Manhattan’s Javits Center, where I seemed to have nabbed an appointment but then was met with an error screen. I worked my way down the list of sites and continued to strike out. Long Island? Nothing. Albany? Nope. Binghamton? Nada. After 30 minutes of clicking, refreshing, and waiting, I finally snatched a slot: February 26, at 4:30 p.m., in Plattsburgh … a four-and-a-half-hour drive from where I live.