12 minute read
The Covid-19 Vaccine Hunger Games: Bonna L. Nelson
The Covid-19 Vaccine Hunger Games
by Bonna L. Nelson
Happy Hunger Games. And may the odds be ever in your favor. Suzanne Collins, The Hunger Games
“Did you get your vaccination yet?” a friend asked in early February 2021. “No,” I answered. “Did you?” “Yes,” she replied. “What? Really? Where? When? How?” I asked incredulously. I repeated the questions over and over in emails, texts, phone calls, FaceTime and Zoom with family and friends for weeks on end, hoping to find out how to get a virus vaccine.
Thus began the great anxietyproducing hunt for COVID-19 vaccinations across the country. The vaccine rollout seemed interminably slow and inefficient. Frustrations were over the top after almost a year of fear, illness, deaths, closures and isolation.
We heard that some vaccines were given as early as December 2020 in certain locales, to certain populations. Each state had guidelines on distribution, with some leaving it up to their counties to distribute.
On January 5, 2021, the Maryland governor announced his plan for the vaccine distribution in phases. Priorities were rightly assigned. Older adults were next in line after Phase 1A, which included healthcare workers, residents and staff of nursing facilities, first responders and public safety workers (law enforcement personnel, correctional officers and frontline judiciary staff).
On January 18, Phase 1B was initiated and included vaccinat-
Hunger Games Phase 2 will begin after the majority of Phase 1 is completed or if ing special needs individuals and the vaccine allocations increase. It group homes, high-risk inmates, includes adults ages 16 to 64 who the homeless, continuity of govern- are at increased risk of severe COment groups, K-12 teachers, child VID-19 illness, as well as essential care workers, education staff and workers in critical utilities, transMarylanders over 75. portation and food service
By January 25, Phase 1C vaccina- Phase 3 will begin after the mations could begin, which included jority of Phase 2 is completed or if high health risk populations, other the allocation of vaccines increases. higher education workers, public Vaccination groups include general safety and healthcare professions, population adults, ages 16 to 64 mass transit workers, veterinarians I am not the first or only writer and staff, Marylanders ages 65 to to suggest that trying to obtain a 74 and essential workers in lab ser- timely vaccine to protect yourself, vices, agriculture, manufacturing your loved ones and everyone in the and the postal service. (Maryland world from the ravages of the novel was in this phase as of the writing of virus is like the Hunger Games this story, mid-March 2021.) story. In The Hunger Games, young
people participate in life-or-death competitions to win food for their families and their districts or hometowns. The losers die.
When the COVID vaccine phases began, senior folks had to actively “hunt” to “win” a vaccine registration/appointment, participating in a possible life-or-death competition with the winners surviving and the losers possibly not, due to limited allocations in certain areas of the country. Note that according to evidence-based reports, older adults are at greater risk of requiring hospitalization or dying if diagnosed with COVID-19, since the risk for severe illness increases with age.
Eight out of ten COVID-19 deaths reported in the U.S. have been adults 65 years and older.
Yet older adults, the highest atrisk population for hospitalization or death from the pandemic disease, were not the highest priority group for vaccination and had to scramble and hunt on their own to find an organization to administer the shot. By contrast, the higher priority essential workers were usually vaccinated at their workplace or arrangements were made for them to get appointments at facilities administering the vaccinations.
In those early days of virus vaccination distribution, the hunger
games (competitions for access to appointments) were conducted on computers, iPads, telephones, cell phones or in person. And some of those venues are not easily handled by or available to older adults or other populations. It was a roller coaster ride filled with psychological turmoil.
As we, along with friends and family in that high-risk 65-and-above age group, tried to obtain COVID vaccine access, I started documenting our sometimes frustrating, sometimes confusing, sometimes amusing experiences. What follows are how our competition played out and some stories shared by friends
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Hunger Games putting yourself at risk in crowded settings. on their contests in the Vaccine Ac- We, husband John and I, like most cess Hunger Games. Although Presi- others, had a “hunger,” a craving, an dent Biden projects having enough urgent need to receive the COVID-19 vaccine doses for everyone by the vaccine. We had spent more than time this piece is published in May, nine months in breast cancer treatmaybe these stories will still be of ment and pandemic sheltering-inhelp or will, at least, amuse. place. We missed family and friends
Happy Hunger Games. And may and were hopeful that with the vacthe odds be ever in your favor. cine we would win our freedom to see
First of all, you needed to have and hug loved ones again. a computer, internet access and Our competition experience for enough computer savvy to surf the vaccine access follows, interspersed net or have assistance to register with friends’ experiences and related on wait lists on the myriad sites news items. that would potentially be offering February 2: appointments to get the vaccine. Or, Friends living in Dorchester you needed to have a telephone or County. Husband, age 77, received cell phone to call those entities that a county appointment. After several offered a telephone number and a unanswered phone calls, wife, age person at the other end to help. Or, 66, registered in person with the you needed a car to go to various sites Cambridge Walmart on a backup to try to sign up in person, thereby list (she heard about this from a
neighbor). If, at the end the day, there were leftover vaccines, the people on the waiting list would be called to come in immediately for a shot. (A few days later, she was called while driving over the Bay Bridge on the way to a medical appointment on the western shore. She begged to be put back on the list and was called in the following week, 2/9)
February 3:
Friends living in St. Michaels, over age 80, heard about Dorchester County vaccine availability, registered and received appointments. A neighbor was offered the vaccine through the Veterans Administration in Cambridge.
February 4:
We registered interest, the first step in obtaining an appointment, for the vaccine with Talbot County; the county was then working on 1A priority groups and those over age 80. We also registered with Dorchester and Caroline counties, all via websites.
February 5:
We registered interest in the vaccine with Walmart, CVS and Walgreens COVID-19 vaccine websites. Additionally, I called and John visited the Easton Walmart to try to register on their backup list. Unlike the Cambridge Walmart, they had none.
Friends, family, news feeds and rumor mills were saying to try to register at online sites at midnight or 5 a.m. A friend tried that for a few
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Hunger Games Medical System, Luminis Health and the Baltimore Convention Center days ~ no luck, the sites were always Mass Vaccination Site and revisited swamped. No one was successful, our registrations with Walmart, as far as I know. Online sites were CVS and Walgreens. There was no blowing up with traffic, due to the federal, state or county centralized competition to get a shot. registration available at that time.
One persistent, frustrated friend February 13: emailed the governor’s office fre- Early on a Saturday morning, afquently, to no avail. ter multiple website searches for an
February 12: appointment, I had a breakthrough.
With still no luck finding vac- Friends had received vaccines at cine appointments, our concerned a CVS in Ocean City. So, this time daughter, Holly, emailed us a Mary- when I scrolled the CVS website for land vaccination spreadsheet, titled vaccine appointments, instead of Maryland Vaccine Hunting, pre- asking for an appointment in Easton, pared by a professional acquain- Cambridge, Denton, Annapolis or tance. Along with a long list of vac- Salisbury, which always said no cination providers, the spreadsheet appointments available, I typed in included best hours to register online Ocean City and received a long list of or to call. appointment openings. Hallelujah!
Using the spreadsheet, we reg- I chose the following Tuesday istered our vaccine interest online at 1:30 and told my husband to log with the University of Maryland on for his appointment. Just that
Hunger Games City CVS nurses said they would have more vaccines in a few days and to quickly, he couldn’t even get into register early in the morning, around the site. It seemed frozen or crashed. 5:30 a.m. One half-hour later, persistence paid But for weeks no one had any luck off . He landed an appointment on fi nding an appointment. the same day and at the same time March 1: as mine! Miraculous! Weeks later, after trying night
February 16: and day, friends started to get ap-
We both received our first CO- pointments, too. It seemed that after VID-19 vaccinations at CVS in West we had our appointments, vaccine Ocean City, and the nurses also gave distributions slowed and the stormy us our four-week follow-up appoint- winter weather caused vaccine shipments and vaccination verifi cation ment delays. My brother-in-law had cards. The visits were preceded by an appointment cancelled due to email and text reminders to both delivery delays. of us and COVID questionnaires. Friends, husband and wife, had The actual vaccination process was a breakthrough on the Walgreens extremely effi cient. vaccine website. One got an appoint-
After our shots, we drove to the ment in Chester and one in AnnapoOcean City boardwalk in hopes of lis. Oddly, both had second appointpurchasing some of our favorite treats, Thrasher’s French fries and Dolle’s candied popcorn, to celebrate, but both were closed.
When we returned home, I sent the Maryland Vaccine Hunting spreadsheet to family and friends in hopes that they too could beat the game. I told them that the Ocean
Hunger Games were caught in the scam when they returned for their second shot and ments scheduled for Annapolis. (We were asked for identification, includall had understood that the second ing date of birth. vax would be in the same location.) In California, Florida and other
March 2: states, there were stories about not-
A friend who had been repeatedly yet-qualified power players, deal calling Talbot County to get her hus- makers, hospital donors, the super band, age 80, scheduled for a shot wealthy and international visitors received a call to come to the Easton trying to jump ahead of legitimate Fire Department (EFD) right away. groups to get in the vaccination line. They had two doses left after a day of Some good news: we started to vaccinating EFD personnel. hear that a few folks had vaccina-
Around this same time, quirky tions arranged by their doctors ~ stories starting popping up in the usually oncologists and cardiologists news. There were the gals in Florida ~ for legitimate high-risk health in their 20s who dressed like older issues. ladies, “grannies” with gray wigs March 4: and baggy clothes. They had suc- More friends had breakthroughs ceeded in getting their first shot but in obtaining vaccines at online websites including CVS, Ocean City, Historic Somerset County and Ferndale,
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ON THE BAY A funny story was relayed by my sister in Naples, Florida. A couple in her town, whom she described as ex-
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tremely kind, quiet, calm and loving toward others and each other, met with a virus vax challenge to their relationship. The wife had tried and tried to get appointments for both of them. One day, she met with success and secured dates.
When the dust settled, she was horrified when she realized that she had obtained commitments at a location on the Florida Panhandle, eight hours away. Her husband was thrilled, but she exploded over the idea of driving 16 hours round trip for each shot, totaling 32 hours, and wanted to search for something closer. Last I heard, they were still going at it without resolution.
As frustrations mounted over finding vaccines at community centers, senior centers, churches and mobile units, families and
