Why can’t I get a vaccine appointment in southwest IL? Answers to your COVID questions
There’s not enough COVID-19 vaccine available for everyone who wants it, officials at the federal, state and local levels agree.
Because doses are limited, vaccination appointments are, too. But a vaccine boost is expected in the coming weeks.
How are metro-east health officials deciding who gets a shot?
Here are answers to questions you may have about the COVID-19 vaccine rollout in southwestern Illinois:
Q: Who is eligible for vaccination?
While supplies are limited, only select groups are eligible to receive the vaccine.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention made recommendations to states about how they could decide to prioritize people based on their risk of exposure to the new coronavirus that causes COVID-19 and their risk of severe illness from the disease.
Frontline health care workers and long-term care facility residents and staff members became eligible in Illinois’ first round of phased distribution, called Phase 1A. People in that group who opted out can still get the vaccine in future phases if they change their minds.
Phase 1B started Jan. 25 statewide. Vaccinations in this group are by appointment only. The following people are eligible in 1B:
- People who are 65 years old and older
- Firefighters
- Law enforcement officers
- 911 workers
- Security personnel
- Teachers, principals and school support staff members
- Daycare workers
- Food and agriculture workers
- Manufacturing workers
- Corrections workers and inmates
- U.S. Postal Service workers
- Public transit workers, including those who work for ride-sharing services
- Grocery store workers
- Staff members at homeless shelters and women’s shelters
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Q: How do I make a vaccination appointment?
As of Feb. 4, six local Walgreens locations are setting up appointments for those eligible in Phases 1A or 1B, according to the state’s vaccine locator at coronavirus.illinois.gov. The locations are:
- 5890 N. Belt West in Belleville
- 6505 N. Illinois St. in Fairview Heights
- 704 Cambridge Blvd. in O’Fallon
- 401 Belt Line Road in Collinsville
- 102 W. Vandalia St. in Edwardsville
- 1650 Washington Ave. in Alton
Anyone in the metro-east who is eligible to receive the vaccine can set up a vaccination appointment with Walgreens online at walgreens.com/findcare/vaccination/covid-19. You’ll have to make an online account. The pharmacy isn’t setting up appointments over the phone.
Local health departments and hospitals are also facilitating appointments.
These are the ways to let a county health department or hospital know you want to set up a COVID-19 vaccine appointment:
St. Clair County: County residents can fill out the COVID-19 Notification for Vaccine Availability form online at health.co.st-clair.il.us to be added to the vaccine waitlist. (If you don’t have internet access or need help signing up, call the health department at 618-825-4447.)
Madison County: County residents and people who work in the county can make an appointment through the health department’s online appointment scheduler available at madisonchd.org if they are eligible in Phases 1A or 1B. (If you don’t have internet access or need help scheduling an appointment, call the health department at 618-650-8445. Officials are asking anyone who filled out the health department’s online survey to join the vaccine waitlist between Jan. 4 and Jan. 20 not to use the appointment scheduler; the health department will contact people on the waitlist directly with the information about scheduling an appointment. The Madison County Regional Office of Education is scheduling appointments for teachers.)
Clinton County: County residents and people who work in the county can fill out the Clinton County, IL Health Department COVID-19 Vaccine Registry online at clintoncountyhealth.com or call the health department at 618-594-6622 to be added to the vaccine waitlist. (The waitlist is currently only for people who are eligible in phases 1A or 1B. You don’t need to fill out the form if you already called to get on the waitlist.)
Monroe County: County residents can sign up for the phone and email alert system CodeRED. Notifications will include the date and time of the county’s vaccination clinics, as well as which residents are eligible to seek appointments based on age or occupation.
Randolph County: County residents can call the health department at 618-826-5007 to be added to the vaccine waitlist. (The waitlist is currently only for residents who are 65 years old or older.)
Bond County: County residents and people who work in the county can fill out the Bond County, IL Health Department COVID-19 Vaccine Registry online at bchd.us to be added to the vaccine waitlist. (The waitlist is currently only for people who are eligible in phases 1A or 1B. You do not need to fill out the form if you already called the health department to get on the waitlist.)
Washington County: County residents can call the health department at 618-327-3644 to be added to the vaccine waitlist. (The waitlist is currently only for residents who are 65 years old or older.)
- BJC HealthCare: Preregistration for a vaccination appointment is available online at bjc.org/coronavirus/covid-19-vaccines. You don’t have to be a current patient of BJC HealthCare to get vaccinated, but you do have to be a resident of either Illinois or Missouri. BJC will contact people to set up appointments when they become eligible and when supplies are available. The hospital system notes on its website that “it could be several weeks, or even months, before you are able to schedule.”
Red Bud Regional Hospital: People eligible for vaccination who live or work in Randolph County can join the hospital’s vaccine waitlist online at redbudanytime.com.
Memorial Hospital in Chester: Patients of the hospital’s clinics who are eligible for vaccination can sign up for the vaccine waitlist online at mhchester.com/covidvax.
Q: I’m eligible. Why can’t I get an appointment right now?
Some metro-east health officials say they are prioritizing within the large 1B group because of the limited vaccine supply they have.
Here’s the order some counties said they are scheduling appointments:
- St. Clair County: People who are 75 and older are first. Next in line is expected to be people who are 65 and older and first responders, Myla Blandford, the health department’s deputy director, said in a recent county briefing.
- Randolph County: People who are 85 and older were first. Now, people who are 75 and older, first responders and teachers can get appointments, according to Health Department Administrator Angela Oathout. Next in line are people who are 65-74 years old, the latest COVID-19 update from the health department stated.
- Monroe County: People who are 85 and older were first. Now, people who are 75 and older can get appointments, but Health Department Administrator John Wagner said Thursday they may adjust the age group getting appointments to 80 and older. Sign up for CodeRED alerts or check the health department’s Facebook page for the latest information.
Health officials said they decided to give appointments to the oldest residents first because they have a high risk of severe illness or death from COVID-19.
Q: When will that change?
President Biden announced two changes to the federal COVID-19 response on Tuesday to help states ramp up vaccinations and plan for appointments.
Starting next week, there will be a 16% increase in the weekly vaccine allotment sent to the states: from 8.6 million doses to a minimum of 10 million doses. Those doses are distributed based on each state’s population, according to Biden.
Biden’s administration is also guaranteeing a minimum amount of vaccine doses that states will receive over a three-week period.
In a press briefing this week, Gov. J.B. Pritzker said states previously weren’t told how much vaccine they were going to receive on a weekly basis until “a day or two before it was available.”
“So it’s impossible, as you can imagine, to make appointments ahead of time if you don’t know how many vaccine doses are going to be available that week,” Pritzker said.
Q: How do I spot a vaccine scam?
Scammers may try to take advantage of Illinoisans’ eagerness to get vaccinated by asking them for money or personal information in exchange for early access to the vaccine, authorities say.
The Illinois Attorney General’s office encourages you to take these steps to protect yourself from vaccine scams:
Do not buy any kind of COVID-19 vaccine or treatment on the internet or from an online pharmacy.
Hang up on any calls, including robocalls, which direct you to take immediate action or provide personally-identifiable information, such as your Social Security number or bank account number.
The Better Business Bureau’s advice is to “be skeptical of anything that seems too good — or crazy — to be true.”
You can report any scams you see to the Illinois Attorney General’s Office online at ccformsubmission.ilattorneygeneral.net or by calling the consumer fraud hotline at 1-800-243-0607.
Q: How much will vaccination cost me?
There is no cost for the vaccine, but providers can charge an administration fee for giving the shot to someone, according to the CDC.
That fee can be reimbursed by private insurance or, for uninsured patients, by the Health Resources and Services Administration’s Provider Relief Fund, CDC states on its website.
Q: What vaccines are available?
In December, the FDA authorized two vaccines made by drug companies for emergency use: one from Pfizer and BioNTech and the other from Moderna. It did so because “there are no adequate, approved, available alternatives” and because “the known and potential benefits of the (products) outweigh the known and potential risks,” the federal agency stated in documents for vaccine recipients.
Both of the authorized vaccines require two doses administered three to four weeks apart, depending on the type of vaccine.
Q: What are some common side effects of the vaccine?
The vaccine side effects that trial participants reported most often were fever, headache and generally feeling unwell, Dr. Ngozi Ezike, director of the Illinois Department of Public Health, said during a press briefing. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says these symptoms are signs the immune system is working.
Q: How does that compare to the effects of COVID-19?
Some people experience mild illness from COVID-19 or no symptoms at all, but the disease can have potentially serious and life-threatening complications, including pneumonia and acute respiratory distress syndrome, leading to multi-organ failure and death, according to the FDA.
This story was originally published January 30, 2021 at 6:00 AM.
