My experience in trying to get vaccinated took me through so many emotions and realizations on the world I live in it was exhausting. This was my experience and I was wondering what yours has been.
First, I heard friends of mine who are in healthcare professions getting their first then their second covid vaccination. Then a friend of mine said she’d gotten an appointment for hers in a couple of weeks. I thought OK I’ll go into my local pharmacy where I get my vaccinations to ask them about getting a vaccination. The person I talked to must have been getting a lot of questions about the vaccinations because she was a bit short with me telling me to keep looking on the website for the latest information. She then turned to a man who said he was in his nineties. I heard him ask about the covid vaccine he got the same information I did. He then explained that he didn’t have a computer and asked what he could do to get an appointment today. She sidestepped the question.
Living in a small community I heard through the grapevine the next Saturday that the pharmacy would open up appointments on Monday when they found out how many doses they were going to receive. Tuesday morning at 3am I got up, went to the pharmacy website to make an appointment. On the covid page they announced that appointments were closed, they announced that 850 appointments were made for the covid vaccination in the coming week.
After this I decided to look around to see where in Western Washington, I could get a vaccine appointment. I found the Washington State Department of Health vaccine website. I clicked on the “Vaccine Phase Finder” form thinking it would lead me to where I could schedule an appointment. This dead ended with a statement confirming I’m eligible for the vaccine under phase 1B instructing me to print the confirmation out and take it to my appointment. Then I found the vaccine location site. The list went on and on county by county. I looked at King, Kitsap, Pierce, Snohomish, Skagit, and Island counties, not finding one place that had an appointment.
I kept trying this vaccine locator site for days, finally found an appointment in Gig Harbor for March 27th. I didn’t stop there I wanted a vaccination as soon as I could get it. Then a friend suggested I go to Virginia Mason in Seattle, I emailed her back, “I’m on the waiting list.” I kept hearing friend after friend who either had an appointment for the vaccination or got their vaccination. Now I consider myself tech savvy and all this covid stuff is online which normally I don’t have problems with. What am I doing wrong? I decided to call Skagit County Department of Health that seemed more user friendly. The person answered on the third ring. I shared my frustration, went through what I’d tried. She encouraged me to keep trying. She herself went through the different vaccination appointment sites to see what people were running into to get the vaccine. “Its confusing with so many different appointment applications and they change almost every day,” she shared with me. Relieved that I wasn’t crazy, there’s just not enough doses to go around. The vaccine distribution system is being redeveloped every day to make getting appointments easier.
Then I heard that two women who are well off and got word from their women’s group in a wealthy neighborhood in Seattle find out where to get the vaccine. Now their qualify but this made me question the qualification criteria. This morning I listened to Democracy Now that addressed this issue. They said “It’s been widely reported throughout the coronavirus pandemic, that Black and Latinx people in the United States have died at higher rates, and new data shows that they are getting vaccinated at much lower rates than white people. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports more than 60% of those vaccinated are white, while just 11.5% were Latinx, 6% were Asian, and just over 5% were Black.
I heard from a friend who works for King County Metro that a day doesn’t go by when a bus driver reports testing positive for covid. I started thinking about all the people who are essential workers, people like teachers, grocery store employees, utility workers, restaurants providing takeout, social service workers such as those that work at foodbanks. I’m not any of these, I can make choices to stay safe with no economic impact.
This made me question my motivation to get a shot at all cost. I live in a small community making exposure to covid a lot less than your average American. Even though I do have a heart disease I am very healthy. My spouse works from home again limiting my exposure. Why isn’t race and economic impact taking into account when in the phases prioritizing vaccinations. These discrepancies proof that there has been little impact after the violence in the year 2020 to the systemic racist and economic bias built into the system. We as individuals, a society and a country still are not willing to take action on racial and economic inequality.
