I live in Bucks Co. My husband and I are both over 70 with serious concomitant health problems, which put us in the 1A category. We registered with the state and county health departments. We tried to sign up with our pharmacy, our physicians, and the local hospital. All of them told us they had no waiting lists, and no vaccine. My pulmonologist, who told me that getting covid would be a death sentence for me, could not get us signed up.

In early April, a woman my husband plays bridge with asked him if we'd been able to get vaccinated, and she gave us the phone number of a family practice in Newtown, about 15 minutes from us. We got an appointment and got both shots (Moderna) with no waiting.

The whole process in PA has been mismanaged from the very beginning. There were rumors of vaccine available further west, but here in SE PA, where population is denser, people--old people and sick people--are still having trouble getting vaccinated. I hope, when this is all over, someone will figure out a better way for the next pandemic. If my husband didn't play bridge, we'd probably still be waiting.

Your experience is pretty similar to my own family's. My mother and step-father got vaccinated in March. He was at the pharmacy picking up a prescription and was asked if he wanted to sign up. Just dumb luck. I did a little searching in late March after other people I work with and know started saying they were finding shots. Most of those worked over the internet and just got lucky and found something. My wife's company finally gave up after trying to help some of their more vulnerable employees find appointments and did a mass vaccination a week ago. My son found the rest of us appointments after someone where he works told him of a mass clinic near us. We got our first shot on Friday.

I'd say your experience just reenforces the fact that those who are most successful just kind of lucked into it via their own social network. In the end, patience and persistence pays off. Not that that's a great strategy but PA has one of the lowest per capita government employee counts in the country. It's not a surprise to me that this has gone so poorly. Too many folks in Harrisburg don't want to have or pay for a functioning government.

I think the best we can hope for is next time there will be less of a distribution bias. SE PA was not receiving as many vaccines early as other parts of the state. Having spent over a decade working in Harrisburg for the state I can tell you that SE PA is an area most folks in the Capitol (and most of this state) have no fondness for. I don't think the diversion of vaccine to other parts of the state was "an accident" or some type of oversight.

Thanks!