COVID shots: How and where to get them, from a reliable source

Morristown High School librarian Debra Gottsleben has compiled a handy online guide to COVID vaccinations in New Jersey.
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You can Google anything. But for really tough questions, there is a better option.

Ask a librarian.

Debra Gottsleben, a librarian at Morristown High School, has tackled the toughest question of them all (after the meaning of life).  How do I get an appointment for a COVID-19 vaccination?

The Holy Grail is here.  

Gottsleben’s online guide lists who’s giving shots where, how to sign up, and strategies for actually connecting. Which places require a million calls?  Where might a walk-in get lucky and score an end-of-the-day leftover dose?  How many miles from Greater Morristown should you be willing to drive for an inoculation?

Her findings stem from personal experience, and much research. She spends about an hour a day updating the information.

“The motivation was me seeing how complicated the process was,” said Gottsleben, a Morristown resident who eventually lined up her own shot, in Elizabeth. (She qualifies under one of the state’s eligibility guidelines.)

Evelyn White, a supervisor from Overlook Hospital, gets COVID vaccine at Morristown Medical Center, Dec. 15, 2020. Photo by Kevin Coughlin

“There are so many places you have to access. It’s such an incredibly frustrating. experience. It’s unbelievable. Trying to get an appointment is a lesson in persistence and aggravation.”

Gottsleben is ideally suited to the task. On the town planning board, as a patient who beat a rare kidney ailment, and as a national adviser to patients with kidney cancer, she has proven her tenacity.

Debra Gottsleben, library Director Chad Leinaweaver and Lisa Price at centennial celebration of Morristown & Township Library, Oct. 27, 2017. Photo by Kevin Coughlin
Debra Gottsleben, library Director Chad Leinaweaver and Lisa Price at centennial celebration of Morristown & Township Library, Oct. 27, 2017. Photo by Kevin Coughlin

She also teaches at Seton Hall University and is a trustee of the Morristown & Morris Township Library.

At first, Gottsleben’s COVID project focused on Morris County. Realizing that many teachers in the Morris School District live elsewhere, she added vaccination details from across New Jersey.

So far, supply cannot meet demand. Some 824,000 doses have been administered in New Jersey since vaccines received emergency federal approvals in December, Gov. Phil Murphy said on Tuesday. About 4 million Garden State residents qualify for the shots under present guidelines.

Everything is a moving target.

Venues that vaccinated eligible people from all over are starting to restrict shots to residents of their counties, Gottsleben said.

Atlantic Health was booking members through its MyChart program. That has been replaced with signups for alerts about when to try for an appointment, she said.

New Jersey’s Byzantine patchwork of systems favors those with access to technology, continued Gottsleben, who worries many of our most vulnerable citizens will give up or get left behind.

Gov. Phil Murphy greets Sgt. Brian Patrick McKnerney of New Jersey State Police, while he receives a COVID-19 vaccination at new Rockaway ‘mega-site,’ Jan. 8, 2021. Pool photo by Sarah Blesener for the New York Times

“It requires a lot of computer savvy, a lot of manual dexterity. As you’re trying to grab an appointment, probably 50,000 others are trying to get it,” she said.

“At a lot of these places, you can’t even sign up unless you have an email,” Gottsleben added.

So she lent one of her email addresses to a senior in need of one, and volunteered to monitor the account for appointment responses.

The two-shot vaccination process is posing challenges, too.

Gottsleben feels fortunate she came home from the Elizabeth Department of Health last week with an appointment for her required second dose of the Moderna vaccine. She said her husband, former Mayor Jay DeLaney Jr., had no such luck.

Via the state’s scheduling app, he landed a slot at the Middlesex Fire Academy in Sayreville. He got his first shot…but no second appointment.

Gottsleben phoned the state’s hotline over the weekend to inquire where her husband might get his second dose. After an hour on hold, she was told the state’s computer scheduling system was down.

“It’s crazy,” she said.

Gottsleben brushes off suggestions that her efforts are extraordinary.

“This is what librarians do,” she said. “We put together information and try to make it accessible for people.”

In that case, Debra, one more question.

About the meaning of life….

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6 COMMENTS

  1. And as long as our Governor keeps finding new groups to add to whatever mixed up “list”, getting the shot will still be a matter of luck, persistence, computer savvy, and as always, Who you Know. Both my husband and I qualified, supposedly, weeks ago, but for now we have decided to stop becoming a slave to sitting by the computer. We are reasonably careful in our daily lives but we are also determined to enjoy life…with or without being vaccinated. There will come a time when appointments are available…maybe even with our own trusted doctor and of course, the more people who receive the shots, the safer everyone else will be. Thanks, Debbie, for doing all this work to help others. (PS. how are the 2 kids I remember???)

  2. Thank you very much for your help and work Debbie.
    Many people need help trying to find something that would seem to very simple.
    It turns out that many need some guidance .
    I reall many vaccines growing up. They seemed to Be orderly and property operated.
    In 2021 that does not seem to be exactly the case.
    Keep up the help.
    Many are grateful.

  3. This is why we need to continue to support public libraries! A bastion of the community, and they excel at getting you the answers you need without any frills, data collection, or trying to sell you something!

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