We were finally able to get DC2 a Covid booster. So far no side effects other than taking a nap the next day.
Try 1 (when they were first available): We made an appointment on the Walgreens website. Vaccines.gov said they had shots for 5-11 year olds. We got there and they said shots for 5-11 year olds hadn’t been approved yet, which was not true. The pharmacy tech allowed it might have been a Walgreens policy. A few days later vaccines.gov took Walgreens off their site for the 5-11 year old shot and Walgreens put a note announcing they didn’t have vaccines for ages 5-11 yet.
Try 2: https://www.vaccines.gov/ said that a Walmart 1.5 hours away had shots for ages 5-11 available. Walmart’s website said they didn’t. We didn’t call. Later these would no longer be listed on vaccines.gov.
Try 3: https://www.vaccines.gov/ said a local grocery store in the next town had shots for ages 5-11 available (though the one in our town did not). The grocery store chain website agreed but didn’t have an online appointment option. DH called just to be sure since it’s a 20+ min drive. They said they did not and had not and did not know when they would get any in. These would also be removed from vaccins.gov.
Tries 4-x: Just lots of monitoring vaccines.gov and finding nothing in a two hour drive. An occasional call to CVS and regular checking of Walgreens. Nothing.
Try 5: https://www.vaccines.gov/ said that the other grocery store chain in our town had vaccines at the store on my way to work. The grocery store’s website disagreed and said it didn’t. DH decided to call anyway. The person on the phone said, yes, they did have the new Covid vaccine for kids age 5-11 and just to come on in, no need for an appointment (which is good, since the website wouldn’t let us make one for DC2). There was no line. No wait. Very peaceful compared to Walgreens. DC2 got the booster and we came home.
Moral: The only way to know for sure is to call.
Have you and yours been successful in hunting down a new Covid booster?
Grumpy Rumblings (of the formerly untenured) 
October 11, 2023 at 7:19 am
Thanks, this is good to hear. I haven’t yet succeeded in finding a vaccine for my 11 year old, but I’ll start looking again.
October 11, 2023 at 8:28 am
Fingers crossed!
October 11, 2023 at 8:44 am
Just found a place! Appointment not until October 20, but it’s the only pharmacy within 40 miles that has the child version available.
October 11, 2023 at 10:11 am
Good luck! My DC1 should be getting hirs next week at college.
October 11, 2023 at 7:21 am
Yay!!! (on the getting, not the hunting, obviously)
This hasn’t been an issue for us. We’re all at least as old as your DC1, which I think simplifies matters? But further (sigh) simplifying matters, my DC caught COVID right after going back to school (cause –> effect, anyone?) and I caught it (presumably) from him. So as I understand it he & I shouldn’t get vaccinated until November at the earliest, when we probably will do so because of the holiday season.
October 11, 2023 at 7:32 am
Yeah, 12+ can all do the adult vaccine. That sucks about Covid, but at least there will be more immunity for the next round.
October 11, 2023 at 8:06 am
I just got mine on Monday (my callback turned out to be due to an imaging artifact).
October 11, 2023 at 8:28 am
Woo!
October 11, 2023 at 8:28 am
We haven’t, but my kid and I took advantage of the gap between approval and availability to actually come down with it for the first time. Thanks to masking, ventilation, and isolation, my husband has managed to avoid getting it thus far. Kid and I are doing okay, at least. She had a cough/no other symptoms. I had to lay down for about 5 days straight, but no symptoms beyond extreme fatigue. Neither one of us has tested negative yet, but her pediatrician’s office said that was to be expected. We’re both pretty much back to normal at this point and I am Very Much Hoping that that doesn’t change.
I think this means we have a wait until my kid or I can get the vaccine. I need to confirm that, though.
October 11, 2023 at 8:36 am
Ugh. They really should have approved them and rolled them out before school started. So many people got Covid this fall before they could get the updated vaccine.
Glad your husband escaped unscathed!
October 12, 2023 at 4:36 pm
Ugh, I’m sorry you caught it. Hope you’re both all mended completely very soon.
October 11, 2023 at 8:39 am
Boy, it should not be that hard! I’m the only one in our family who’s had the most recent booster and I got it at work. DH had covid in early September, so he should wait awhile. We should get moving on getting them for the kids, though. And we all need our flu shots. I did both covid and flu shots together last time and was in bad shape afterward, so I just did covid this time and had almost no reaction.
October 11, 2023 at 10:14 am
It really shouldn’t. Maybe sometimes government intervention is more efficient than the free market. Just saying.
October 11, 2023 at 11:58 am
Yes, I got the Pfizer booster as soon as possible.
I had a flu shot scheduled at a local pharmacy for the day after the updated Pfizer and Moderna boosters had been approved. I asked about availability of the new boosters and was told that the vaccine was on hand, but that insurance companies were denying claims for it. The pharmacist advised me to wait a week to allow insurance companies to get their act together.
Early the following week I tried to book an appointment, but there were not openings available that week. I really wanted to get the booster that week because I had business travel the following week and wanted that immunity boost before I spent hours in airports and on planes. (Even masked there is a risk.) I managed to find a pharmacy about 30 minutes away with an appointment later that week and booked it.
I’m very glad I got the booster because one of my close friends came down with Covid last week. We had just spent an evening together having dinner at my house and hanging out for hours unmasked. She probably was exposed a day or two before that and her symptoms started two days after we were together. I tested myself twice: three days after our dinner, and five days after our dinner. Both tests were negative. Boosters FTW!
October 11, 2023 at 1:56 pm
I was directly exposed a couple of times within a month or two of last year’s booster and never had symptoms or a positive test. Boosters are pretty amazing.
October 11, 2023 at 10:26 pm
Luckily, we were able to get my 11 years old daughter her covid booster at the pediatrician’s office. I didn’t realize it was that hard to get! The funny thing was, she tested positive for covid later that night, on the same day as her covid injection. Doh! She did have a headache for a day or two prior to the vaccine but I didn’t think it could be covid.
October 12, 2023 at 4:40 am
Our pediatrician STILL doesn’t have any shots.
That sucks about Covid.
October 12, 2023 at 1:02 am
Wow. There are definitely some regional differences here. We already had 2 vaccine clinics at the kid’s school, during the school day. You don’t even have to be present with the kid, but did have to sign up in advance. The first one filled up fast and my kid was sick during the second one so we are waiting a bit until his chest cold clears. No issues up here in MA even in my dinky town in a small county. I do have to drive an hour for Costco and Trader Joe’s but not for vaccines.
There are so many differences between living red and blue that I would never have been aware of if it wasn’t for this blog.
October 12, 2023 at 4:42 am
Sounds like state or local government is filling in for federal. Not here!
October 12, 2023 at 6:34 am
This is the first time COVID booster shots are being handled by the same private sector channels as flu shots, rather than the special centralized process created with pandemic emergency funds. Without the centralized process, it’s not working as well.
DW and I were scheduled to get our COVID booster shots at Walgreens two weeks ago today, then got email and text messages canceling the appointment. We’d heard from a friend that a local supermarket had some walk-in shots available so the next morning I called at 8:05 AM because their pharmacy opens at 8 AM weekdays. “Yes we have some, just get here before 9…”
By the way, a very significant development has not been given anything remotely like the media attention it should get: the Yamagata influenza B strain appears to have gone extinct. Of course many other seasonal influenza strains are still around. But this is a really big deal: it shows that if we actually DO the things recommended by public health experts we can wipe out viruses. And that if we did more of the right things we could wipe out more viruses.
October 12, 2023 at 2:18 pm
We’re not eligible here until the end of October, but then I think it will be relatively easy to get everyone vaccinated as there is major vaccine fatigue – booster uptake has not been good. My household remains Covid-free but my kids are tired of masking in school. I’ve asked them to keep masking until we are all two weeks past the booster. Hoping we can get through these three weeks illness-free!
October 12, 2023 at 2:52 pm
DC2 is still masking. We’ve said zie can stop in a couple weeks but zie says zie prefers it. (We’ve made the same offer after every full booster.)
Fingers crossed for your family!
October 12, 2023 at 4:37 pm
PiC and I were lucky enough to get the booster but we’re still on the hunt for the kids. I’m irritated that it’s this much of a pain for (it sounds like most) people to get appointments.
October 12, 2023 at 4:43 pm
You’re in California too!
October 12, 2023 at 5:14 pm
We have been very lucky in that (after the first series, of course) we’ve been able to get all of our COVID shots at my DH’s office. However, even they don’t have good supplies this year. They didn’t have any until yesterday, and when we tried to go in and get them this morning they were already out! It is pretty crazy how scarce they have been! I have heard that a local supermarket chain and Walgreens have them, but am holding out for the convenience of our usual route. We’ll get the flu and COVID shots at the same time, assuming they can get more of the updated COVID shots and keep them around long enough for us!
October 13, 2023 at 7:26 am
I’m taking my 5yr old to get her covid and flu shots tonight at CVS. DH and I got ours a few weeks ago and at that time I couldn’t make an online appointment for my kiddo. The pharmacy location options were all over the place with who actually had appointments. I’m really hoping it actually happens tonight but I’m going to be slightly nervous till its actually happening. Our pediatricians office was going to do a waiting list for the covid vaccine according to their flu shot clinic emails but I haven’t checked back with them. Its all really frustrating but it sounds like it could be worse. I just am hoping the lack of appointments here and weird location options is because people are making appointments and getting shots and not due to pharmacy staffing issues.
October 13, 2023 at 8:14 am
Wooo!
Good luck and fingers crossed!
October 13, 2023 at 4:24 pm
Fail! Despite getting a confirmation text and everything the CVS pharmacy now closes at 6om which was the time of our appointment. Back to square one…
October 13, 2023 at 4:43 pm
Boooo
November 14, 2023 at 4:31 am
On 9/22, everyone 12+ at my house got the 2023-2024 Pfizer and their flu shot, at CVS, no charge. Like you, finding the 5-11 dose took some doing. After one cancellation due to lack of supply, CVS came through with an appointment across town, on 10/5. It was ecstatic!
So far we 4 have managed to avoid getting Covid, to our knowledge anyway. I still mask everywhere. Yay for modern medicine & a much-deserved Nobel for mRNA vaccine pioneers!