VACCINE BOOKING FAQ

• You’ll book your 2nd dose while at your 1st appointment. You don’t need to do this online.

• Vaccines are free right now. Even if you don’t have health insurance.

• Governor Cuomo signed legislation requiring NY Employers grant 4 paid hours to employees to get the vaccine. More info here.

• If you think that not getting vaccinated is a good idea, your theory is playing out horrifically in India, Brazil and other areas with low vaccination rates. Countries are begging for vaccinations. Use yours.

Dutchess County has recently made their signup links for vaccine appointments public, meaning, people no longer need to wait to be emailed by the county for a slot to open up. People can visit Dutchess County’s Vaccination page for upcoming appointment opportunities. Some of the events are being called Pop-Up events, which are popular in shopping and retail, and now in getting vaccinated for COVID-19. Additionally, the brand of vaccine is indicated with the date, so you can pursue the brand you want if that is important to you.

This is a major shift in the process from where Dutchess County made appointments available for anyone eligible to sign up to (when there were higher age restrictions), and pivoted to an email list after signups disappeared within 5 minutes. Demand for the vaccine has waned in New York State, and Dutchess County has since made the appointment links open again, which is easier for people to access.

After publishing the article, “Governor Cuomo Continues To Skip Dutchess County As A NY State Partner Vaccination Site - Why That Matters,” a friend sent what was then an underground appointment link to a direct online signup website for Dutchess County’s JCPenney location at the New York State booking website. This was confusing, as Dutchess County was sending press releases to inform the media that Governor Cuomo would not add Dutchess County as a Partner Site, which he did not, but the booking software did reside on the New York State website.

To confirm how the direct link existed, ALBB reached out to Colleen T. Pillus, Communications Director for Dutchess County Executive Office to find out how a public link was possible, when Dutchess County still kept them behind a registration email. She confirmed that the county was balancing stress from the public, and keeping signups within the county.

“People from much further away would have booked. People found it exceptionally stressful and disconcerting,” Colleen said. “They asked us to be put on lists. We did the list. We send it out. We randomly pull, if we have 500 doses, we pull at least 500 names. People now are wonderfully getting vaccinated from other places, and we send out an email to let one know that the person is eligible and to use a link that you can book an appointment.”

The vaccination event that the underground link was connected to had filled slower than other events, Colleen told ALBB. “We will probably start transitioning to having links on the County website. We just don't know when we keep getting doses.”

One month later, and one vaccination pause and release later, Dutchess County has put direct links to vaccination event signups on their website. These include dates for Dutchess County’s mass vaccination sites, JCPenney store at the Poughkeepsie Galleria and at the former CVS, 3081 Route 22, Dover. According to Rep. Sean Patarick Maloney, vaccination enthusiasm has declined in New York State. ALBB has emailed his office for his source, and has not yet received the source of the data. Though his office has responded to ALBB’s requests for pictures of the event at JCPenney where he mentioned this stat. If you have this information, please submit.

The Dutchess County vaccination website also includes links to Community Pop-Up events in Beacon, Millerton, Beekman, and others. Some events offer walk-in availability. Still, other pop-up events that the Beacon School District learn about in Kingston or other locations have been shared by Beacon’s Superintendent.

Private locations still offer their own signup links, like Sun River Health Systems on Henry Street in Beacon (being a patient is not required). CareMount Medical is offering vaccinations, but to current patients only and continue to use “Do Not Forward” type links.

Technology exists to connect all of this, so that there can be one central page at the New York State level for everyone to click and book. Why centralizing this signup process has not happened is not clear.