Vaccination milestones

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Two days ago President Biden gave a speech marking one year since the Coronavirus national emergency was declared.

I consider the national vaccination program to be a huge success so far, in that it has just delivered on its promise of administering "100 million doses in 100 days" far ahead of schedule. As of this morning, the CDC COVID data tracker website shows that 101 million doses have been administered.

My wife just got her first vaccination shot yesterday, at a pharmacy about 30 minutes away from our home. She is feeling good. I have an appointment to get my first shot next week. I am excited. 

Getting those appointments did have its minor frustrations.

In Washington State, there is a state web site called Find Your Phase that poses a series of questions to determine if you are eligible for a vaccine. Here is one of them.

"Are you over 50 years and living with and caring for someone who is not your child (i.e. a grandchild, niece or nephew)?"

The web site of a local hospital tries to describe the same criteria in a different way:

"You live with and care for your grandchild" 

A phone number for the same hospital says it another way:

"You are 50 years or older in a multigenerational household."

I am 58 years old, and I don't have any risk factors. I work in telecommunications which is considered an essential industry. However because I can work from home, that disqualified me front getting an early vaccine. I am fine with that. People who cannot work from home should get the vaccine sooner than those who can work from home.

Recently, one of our daughter's close friends needed a place to stay, and moved in with us. He has been part of our "bubble" of close family and friends for the past year. So now my wife and I meet the criteria of being 50 years or older in a multigenerational household (our daughter does not count for that). Even though our daughter's friend is not our grandchild, he is dependent on us for support. So going by the language on the state web site, we were able to qualify.

Once we qualified it took another week to find a location close to us that had vaccines or would give us appointments. We visited a community clinic that took walk up appointments, but they had just run out and were only giving second doses. I continued to check and re-recheck web sites until we each had an appointment lined up.

The process was not as simple as I would have liked it to be. But I'll take it gratefully.

I am grateful to everyone who worked so hard to get our country to this point where vaccines are now available to us. Keep up the good work.

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