The Vaccination Situation

It’s been a full year since the coronavirus landed in the state of Washington unveiling itself to Americans and first began rearranging our lives. We knew very little, if anything, about the virus strain. Was it lab created as an experiment gone off the rails? Did it originate from some bat-eating girls? If you catch it once and recover, can you catch it twice?

So many questions with lots of unknowns. Scientists and researchers spent 2020 diligently studying and researching the answers to those questions and a myriad more. Operation Warp Speed was set into motion to find a remedy to slow or stop the virus altogether. That remedy came in the form of viable vaccines by Pfizer and Moderna announced in Fall 2020 and still now more are on the horizon with Merck and Johnson & Johnson having successful trials. But are we any better off now than we were a year ago?

To some degree yes. We know a lot more about the original strain but what about the differing variant strains from the UK, Brazil, and South Africa now circling about in the U.S. How will those strains effect individuals? Does the vaccines currently developed combat the variant strains? Perhaps in 10 or 15 years we will be able to refer to Covid-19 like we refer to influenza with the option of getting an annual “shot.”

Now that we have vaccines getting everyone that wants to be vaccinated is the next hurdle…and it’s a mess. With no clear plan from the previous administration about how to “get shots in arms” in an detailed orderly fashion, it is now proving a bit chaotic.

Last Friday, I was checking my national internet feed for news and there Georgia was again front and center. Since November the Peach State has been a constant in national headlines—senate runoff elections, calls about finding 11,000 votes, Marjorie Taylor Greene.

I found myself reading about how the Medical Center of Elberton was suspended from the Covid-19 vaccination program in Georgia for six months until July 2021. Their offense—vaccinating Elbert County School District employees who didn’t meet current vaccination guidelines for the current 1A phase of the process. That would include medical and health personnel along with the elderly, 65 plus population.

Now while I understand the Center broke the rules just put forth a few months ago by the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), I am thinking about all the other vaccination ongoing now. For instance vaccine tourism that is currently “a thing” in which individuals visiting another country or state, no matter their age or condition, are vaccinated for Covid-19 which is not available to them at home. It is all about the Covid vaccine which is having a slow rollout and isn’t yet available worldwide.

I recently read about an indigenous community in Canada with about a population of 100 having a vaccination event for its inhabitants which are mostly elderly. Two individuals, obviously not from the community and not fitting the qualifications, showed up for vaccines. The couple told the staff administering the vaccine that they were employees at the local motel but had actually just landed at the local airstrip by private plane. After receiving doses of the vaccine meant for the townsfolk they asked for a ride back to the airstrip which triggered questions.

Turns out the couple included the millionaire head of a gaming corporation and his actress girlfriend who were supposed to be quarantined 1,900 miles away. At age 55 and 32, they took vaccines from the elderly townfolk and for no good reason apparently other than that they could.

Then there is an Indian travel agency that is offering four-day trips from Mumbai to New York that include a Covid-19 shot with their package.

Now the Elbert County deal was obviously not vaccine tourism and the facility likely saw it as a way to try to aid in getting some norm back to the community. Schooling hasn’t been consistent since March 2020 with corona spreading like wildfire.

Many educators don’t want to be in the building with the unknown lurking without knowing how it may or may not affect their health. To that end, many parents don’t know what to do with kids distance learning or just plain don’t want to in addition to some kids not being conducive to learning remotely. It’s been a tough situation for many communities.

So while I am not defending what the medical facility did, it beats vaccine tourism. On top of that, during these Covid times what’s a medical facility without a vaccine shipment for six months.

I don’t know where this vaccine rollout is headed but I hope the trajectory becomes brighter in the near future.