The Vaccine Roll-Out (NO RUNNING CONTENT)

Feb. 12, 2021 - I added an addendum about our own experience at the end.

This is a rant I just posted on Facebook. I'm reposting it here for posterity. I apologize that there's nothing here about running. Your normal programming will return soon. I promise.

It didn’t have to be this way.

Several weeks ago, I gave the Trump Administration some credit for Operation Warp Speed, the development, manufacturing, and distribution of COVID-19 vaccines. I stated that regardless of what you thought of Donald Trump, thanks to his team and of course the scientists and private corporations involved, the success had been remarkable. We now see that although the development and manufacturing of vaccines was indeed outstanding, the distribution has been abysmal. Trump and his team, including Mike Pence, completely dropped the ball on this front. You might say that two out of three ain’t bad, but if the vaccine doesn’t get into people, the whole operation fails. And of course, that’s what has happened. President Biden’s team is working hard to rectify the problem, but progress will take time. Trump’s previous miss-steps, and this later one, cost the U.S. hundreds of thousands of lives. Millions more were impacted due to the resulting economic disruption.

In my part of the world, it takes some ridiculous combination of time, wherewithal, and pure dumb luck for those eligible to land a vaccination. Since the vast majority of those who are eligible are over age 65, having that wherewithal becomes all the more problematic. Of course, some parts of the country have it better than others, and that’s where some of the ‘luck’ comes into play. Things would be much better if there were simply more vaccine to go around. There would be, if the Trump Administration hadn’t blown this part of Operation Warp Speed so badly. 

I know that things are improving, almost by day, with Biden’s team’s roll-out stewardship. We only need the improvement to happen faster still.

Our Personal Experience (added): 

Above, I noted that it takes some ridiculous combination of time, wherewithal, and pure dumb luck for those eligible to land a vaccination. Debbie and I became eligible this past Monday. I'd been trying earlier (thinking that perhaps we could get vaccinated in PA), and also Sunday, the previous day. But I really got serious on Monday morning.

First thing Monday, I started trying the Medina County Health Department. This seemed like it would be the best choice since they were the most proactive about the process there. The transparency, at least, was refreshing. With no initial luck there, I began trying private provides, like Drug Mart, Giant Eagle, Marc's, and Walgreens. Those, along with the Cleveland Clinic, are all the providers in Medina County.

Cleveland Clinic, by the way, said they would contact us when appointments are available. "Don't hold your breath for that," I told Debbie. Each of the others had their own process and their own quirks. Drug Mart allowed us to register by placing ourselves on waiting lists for them to contact us (still waiting). Walgreens would allow us to search by zip code, but I never saw any results at all. Giant Eagle and Marc's made you wait - sometimes as long as 40 minutes - to just get into the site. Then the site would often say that no appointments whatsoever were available forcing us to start from scratch with them. Or we would be allowed to enter various zip codes (we'd start with our own) and a store or two would very occasionally pop up. When this happened, 90% of the time, the store showed no times available. 

But perhaps 10% of 10% of 10% of the time, a valid store, date, and time would show as available. I would try to quickly grab one of these slots, but more than half the time, the option would be gone before I was able to enter a name and other information. It appears that others were grabbing the options right from under our noses. 

Debbie, who was trying at the same time as me, finally landed an appointment at the Streetsboro Giant Eagle over a week away. Try as she might, she wasn't able to get me an appointment there. When she tried, she wound up modifying her own rather than creating a new appointment. Later, I managed to get an appointment at a Canton Marc's for the very next day. I went on and also managed to get Debbie an appointment at the Alliance Marc's at the very same date and time. So we'd need to drive that long haul separately. But we felt fortunate to get the time slots. This, after trying all day Monday and half of Tuesday.

I am happy to report that the vaccine appointments went well, and Marc's also placed us on their schedule to receive our second Moderna dose 28 days later. Debbie then canceled her Giant Eagle appointment.

What a mess. Why isn't there one place to go to get an appointment, where you would be guided to a date, time, and location? This should NOT be so hard.