Like A New Part Time Job
I’m sure those readers of my blog who live in more rationally run states are weary of my complaining. But trying to get vaccinated and then trying to get a shot for Woody has consumed my life for a couple of months now. Sometimes it interferes with my writing as it did this week.
Trying to get vaccinated in Massachusetts has been a very active part-time job for two months, even since the first vaccine supposedly appeared here. The Republican Governor of MA, Baker, did a decent job during most of the plague year. But with vaccines, it has been nothing but a huge mess.
The state site is useless. It leaves off half the places that have vaccines at a given time while listing sites that have none. When I went on it one day last week, instead of a map of Massachusetts or Cape Cod where I live, a map of Nebraska appeared. It frequently crashes, as it did this week when Woody tried to go on it at midnight, the only time there’s sometimes a shot at signing up for a vaccine. He spent the next hours of the night trying websitee I had provided him with. Although Baker had announced that starting Wednesday of this week, people over 65 and people with two serious conditions [if you search long enough, you have a chance of finding out what that means] would become eligible. Well, almost no sites would let anyone under 75 sign up. they don’t have enough vaccine for first responders even.
Not that it has been do-able for those of us in that range of 75 and over. Cape Cod has been a vaccine desert from the beginning. Baker simply doesn’t care about the Cape. It’s an unreal place to him. He looks at the real estate values and thinks we’re rich, but that’s only the summer people. I have tried to write to him about reality. I served as a volunteer on the Friends of the Council on Aging for over 12 years and I’m aware how many seniors here live just on Social Security. Many are reliant on the local Food Bank and many need fuel assistance. Many lack transportation. We provided it from the Senior Center to go once a week shopping two towns over where there are three supermarkets. one day for local trips in town, and one day to go to medical appointments up Cape. Many elders can’t afford to buy a computer. Those who are computer savvy always used the row of free computers at the Wellfleet library – but it has been closed since March. We have the largest percentage of seniors of any county, but we don’t get help.
To get a vaccine theoretically means going on line. In actual fact, that has not worked for anyone I know. The only way I got my first dose and Woody got his yesterday is from a friend calling or emailing you that they are getting a shot and when and where. If you IMMEDIATELY call that site, you have a chance. That’s the only way I got my shot and Woody got his – different sites as the place I got mine CAREWELL in South Dennis, ran out of vaccine shortly after I got mine and although I have a n appointment there for my second, they told me to look elsewhere as they have no vaccine and they don’t expect the State to send them any.
If you live in one of those lucky states that have some rational system for distribution, you must think it’s really weird, and it is. Moderna that makes the vaccine is located in Massachusetts. We are supposed to have the best hospitals in the country. By the way, Beth Israel had offered me an appointment I took although 100 miles away [and I’m afraid to use public restrooms] but then the State stopped giving hospitals any vaccine. So no appointments now. A friend had the same experience with Mass General hospital. Instead there are two mass vaccine sites in Boston. But that requires getting there and standing in line outside in frigid temperatures [and even then just try to get a slot!] They did one briefly in Eastham in a parking lot and it was a total disaster. People got sick waiting in the freezing temperatures and half of them waited in vain as vaccine ran out quickly.
This has been my life lately. There’s no reason it should be like this for anyone eligible.
The pleasantest things this week were Woody taking me on a drive Thursday when it was very sunny and we drove lots of side roads up High Head and through the Provincelands; and having Tash and Stephanie over Friday evening for supper. And of course, the cats always make me happy, A purring kitty lifts my spirits.