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April, Fools!
Feb. 15th, 2021 09:34 pmJust thought I'd (Mister) Tee that up....
Getting the COVID vaccine has been a frustrating process for many people we know, many at greater risk than me and the missus. Like all things where DEATH is in the picture, the obstacles essentially come in threes.
----
Just qualifying has been the first challenge until just recently, when New York finally opened up eligibility beyond essential workers (health care and teachers, but not front-line retail) and the over-65 elderly. Finally, it was announced that sufferers of a specific list of "comorbidities" would qualify.
"Kidney disease" is on the list. For me, that points to the most obvious risk I've got, in that I only have one kidney, but it's due to a childhood trauma, not disease. I don't think the virus cares if it infects the one I've got, but does it count? No FAQs or other information was available to qualify that qualification. On the other hand, they've got hypertension on the "heart condition" list, and I, and probably half the state, qualify under THAT. Again, nothing saying it's limited to extreme or uncontrollable HBP, so I apparently cleared the first hurdle.
----
Second, there comes the frustration of trying to find the stuff in a place and at a time you can actually get injected. The state has changed the delivery system rules more often than a floating crap game since the first vaccines actually became available late last year. Wegmans is one of several pharmacies that is approved to distribute it at a number of their upstate stores, including Eleanor's and one almost as close to us, but the Health Department is only allowing them to give it to over-65 patients, not even their own essential workers who would otherwise be eligible (she's got both of her kidney beans but also takes BP meds). They've tried distributing through hospitals, pop-up sites in underserved neighborhoods, and I half expect one of the local stadiums to be used eventually despite how badly THAT worked out in LA last month thanks to the anti-vax idiots. There's at least one state-run website that does the screening and then scheduling on a statewide basis, but I've heard horror stories about people not being able to access it, getting hung up in the sign-up process, and/or having to comb through dozens of sites and dates to get something.
It was a holiday today, and I had only two appointments with clients: a 9 a.m. and one right before 4. So I had plenty of time for farting about on this errand. I got qualified in mere minutes after confessing my 130-over-80ish condition, and was then offered a site at UB, mere miles from my very desk!
No appointments.
Dome Arena outside of Rochester? Nada.
Binghamton University? Nope.
But! Everybody sing!
Fortunately, the wait's not until August. I snagged one at the Syracuse Fairgrounds site for the 6th of April. A few more qualifying questions, a peek at my insurance card and a swear to eligibility, and I had an appointment on the schedule and a ticket in my email.
----
This still doesn't eliminate the third hurdle, the one you see those horses jumping over in that screenshot. Confirmed appointments are no guarantee; between supply shortages, delivery snafus and plain old winter weather of the predicted kind that's already called off tomorrow's scheduled shots in at least Rochester, it ain't in your O-positive until it's in your O-positive.
Or mine, anyway. You may not be my type.
Hoping for the best, though, it'll still be an adventure. Soon as I got my Golden Ticket, I shared the news with Facebook friends and texted Eleanor. By the time she got home to run the gauntlet herself, the site was telling her she could get the first injection as soon as late next week!
The site was lying. More likely, it was a bug showing up in her Chrome browser that wasn't showing up in my Firefox one. She had to scroll through date after date of unavailable appointments before finally landing on one in Syracuse two days after mine....
And, as the rules for this now go, once you've gotten the first, you must schedule the second at the same place you got the first, to be given there about two weeks later, but not confirmable until you're at the vaccination site. Which means we're looking at four separate 200-plus-mile drives, two for each of us, to get this done- if the stuff is available on each of the four days.
All of this could change tomorrow. Wegmans could announce tomorrow that it has been cleared to vaccinate all its employees next week. Little drops of Pfizer could fall from the sky like ping pong balls and innoculate us all! The Sabres could win the Stanley Cup!
Nahhhhhh.
----
ETA. Huh. This was finally the perfect time to use my longago Nurse Jackie icon (we just saw Bobby Cannavalle from that series cast in one of Christopher Plummer's final movies that we really enjoyed, titled Boundaries), but lo and behold it defaulted back to Klinger when I posted. Turns out my last paid subscription expired at midnight GMT, and all of DW's nice notifications about that were going into my spam folder. I'm fixed up for six months now, since there isn't any saving of twelve months over the six.
Getting the COVID vaccine has been a frustrating process for many people we know, many at greater risk than me and the missus. Like all things where DEATH is in the picture, the obstacles essentially come in threes.
----
Just qualifying has been the first challenge until just recently, when New York finally opened up eligibility beyond essential workers (health care and teachers, but not front-line retail) and the over-65 elderly. Finally, it was announced that sufferers of a specific list of "comorbidities" would qualify.
"Kidney disease" is on the list. For me, that points to the most obvious risk I've got, in that I only have one kidney, but it's due to a childhood trauma, not disease. I don't think the virus cares if it infects the one I've got, but does it count? No FAQs or other information was available to qualify that qualification. On the other hand, they've got hypertension on the "heart condition" list, and I, and probably half the state, qualify under THAT. Again, nothing saying it's limited to extreme or uncontrollable HBP, so I apparently cleared the first hurdle.
----
Second, there comes the frustration of trying to find the stuff in a place and at a time you can actually get injected. The state has changed the delivery system rules more often than a floating crap game since the first vaccines actually became available late last year. Wegmans is one of several pharmacies that is approved to distribute it at a number of their upstate stores, including Eleanor's and one almost as close to us, but the Health Department is only allowing them to give it to over-65 patients, not even their own essential workers who would otherwise be eligible (she's got both of her kidney beans but also takes BP meds). They've tried distributing through hospitals, pop-up sites in underserved neighborhoods, and I half expect one of the local stadiums to be used eventually despite how badly THAT worked out in LA last month thanks to the anti-vax idiots. There's at least one state-run website that does the screening and then scheduling on a statewide basis, but I've heard horror stories about people not being able to access it, getting hung up in the sign-up process, and/or having to comb through dozens of sites and dates to get something.
It was a holiday today, and I had only two appointments with clients: a 9 a.m. and one right before 4. So I had plenty of time for farting about on this errand. I got qualified in mere minutes after confessing my 130-over-80ish condition, and was then offered a site at UB, mere miles from my very desk!
No appointments.
Dome Arena outside of Rochester? Nada.
Binghamton University? Nope.
But! Everybody sing!
Fortunately, the wait's not until August. I snagged one at the Syracuse Fairgrounds site for the 6th of April. A few more qualifying questions, a peek at my insurance card and a swear to eligibility, and I had an appointment on the schedule and a ticket in my email.
----
This still doesn't eliminate the third hurdle, the one you see those horses jumping over in that screenshot. Confirmed appointments are no guarantee; between supply shortages, delivery snafus and plain old winter weather of the predicted kind that's already called off tomorrow's scheduled shots in at least Rochester, it ain't in your O-positive until it's in your O-positive.
Or mine, anyway. You may not be my type.
Hoping for the best, though, it'll still be an adventure. Soon as I got my Golden Ticket, I shared the news with Facebook friends and texted Eleanor. By the time she got home to run the gauntlet herself, the site was telling her she could get the first injection as soon as late next week!
The site was lying. More likely, it was a bug showing up in her Chrome browser that wasn't showing up in my Firefox one. She had to scroll through date after date of unavailable appointments before finally landing on one in Syracuse two days after mine....
And, as the rules for this now go, once you've gotten the first, you must schedule the second at the same place you got the first, to be given there about two weeks later, but not confirmable until you're at the vaccination site. Which means we're looking at four separate 200-plus-mile drives, two for each of us, to get this done- if the stuff is available on each of the four days.
All of this could change tomorrow. Wegmans could announce tomorrow that it has been cleared to vaccinate all its employees next week. Little drops of Pfizer could fall from the sky like ping pong balls and innoculate us all! The Sabres could win the Stanley Cup!
Nahhhhhh.
----
ETA. Huh. This was finally the perfect time to use my longago Nurse Jackie icon (we just saw Bobby Cannavalle from that series cast in one of Christopher Plummer's final movies that we really enjoyed, titled Boundaries), but lo and behold it defaulted back to Klinger when I posted. Turns out my last paid subscription expired at midnight GMT, and all of DW's nice notifications about that were going into my spam folder. I'm fixed up for six months now, since there isn't any saving of twelve months over the six.