How exciting it is to finally get a vaccine dose! It feels like getting a PS5!

So some things I learned along the way:

- Book morning slots. As learned previously, pharmacies don't keep real-time records of their inventory so if you booked a later time-slot, you risk them running out of supply by the time your appointment comes around.

- With CVS in particular, the displayed availability may not represent reality. However, proceed with booking the time-slot to lock it for 30 minutes THEN call the pharmacy to confirm that their supply is good. Locking your time-slot is especially important with high-demand vaccines since they go really fast (the PS5 experience!)

- CVS phone-tree: 1 (pharmacy) -> 7 (speak to a pharmacist) -> optionally 2 (no, if they try to sell you their app)

- Call about a few hours before your booked appointment to confirm the pharmacy still has supply

- Have a backup plan using walk-in pharmacies or other appointments

- For CVS, keep watching for time-slot openings. As mentioned above, they come and go fast.

- For CVS, keep info@alerts.cvs.com on your mail server's allowlist. Block all others.

Final timeline:

16 Sep 2023: First attempt. Cancelled due to shipment not yet received. Receive dose of flu vaccine though.

25 Sep 2023: Rescheduled second attempt. Cancelled due to insurance not yet covering Pfizer.

26 Sep 2023: Rescheduled with Moderna and third attempt. Cancelled due to depleted stock.

29 Sep 2023: Self-cancelled 3 Oct 2023 after seeing original location suddenly has ample time-slots. Kept in touch to ensure their supply was good up to an hour before my appointment. Received dose. Confirmed with them that they just received their shipment just the day before.