That's What Friends Are For

 

That's What Friends Are For

I got the first shot of my vaccination for Covid 19 this morning, January 6^th. This was far sooner than I expected to receive it but the opportunity arose on the spur of the moment and I took it. I rarely act that quickly. I was in line a half hour after being notified of the possibility. I am greatly appreciative to the person who notified me and to LCRMC for administering the vaccinations. I was not the first one there. I would estimate that there were possibly as many as 75 people there before me. I was very uneasy standing in line with all of those people in an enclosed space but everyone was at least masked and socially distanced. I have noticed that of late many more people are wearing masks and zealously being socially distanced and I am appreciative of that. It seems that about everyone now has known someone who has been very ill with Covid 19 or has passed on. That will change a lot of minds.

I had asked friends who have some sort of access to the medical community to give me a heads up if any vaccinations became available and one did that withing 24 hours. That is the value of friends and networking. Let me take this opportunity to remind people that no man is an island. We all depend on each other regardless of what some would tell us.

I have been diligent about keeping up with the vaccines and the state of their distribution so it is possible that I have been more informed about what is going on. For instance, I was aware that doses of the vaccines were being distributed to people in group 1A. If you don't know what group you are in you need to find out. No one cares more about your health that you do. I also knew that sometimes, when everyone in a group has been vaccinated, the extra doses were made available to the public. Due to the stringent controls on how the vaccines are stored there is every effort to use up the ones available in order to not lose them due to expiration.

I will admit that this is not a fair and just way to distribute the vaccines. A just and fair method would have registered every citizen and scheduled the vaccinations according to need. Indeed, that was once the plan and there was an office in the White House dedicated to that purpose but, alas, it was disbanded shortly following President Trump's inauguration. He told the public that he knew where to find doctors and, besides, he knew more about the topic than anyone. That office would have put forward a national plan to deal with the pandemic and set up the distribution chains into the states. That was not done and this administration just allocated the vaccines to the states and said the ball is in your court.

Speaking of the Lake Cumberland District Health Department the job of contact tracing and administering large numbers of doses of the vaccines proved overwhelming and there is not yet any coherent system of letting people know when they can receive the protection afforded by the vaccines. Congress asked in the last stimulus package for money to fund these measures for the health departments but, as you know, it was held up in the Senate. So, if you want to blame someone now you know who to blame.

Going forward I still don't know how we are going to vaccinate 330 million people not once but twice without additional resources. I sincerely hope that when President-elect Biden takes office that he put emergency measures in place to accomplish this monumental task. He has said that he will.

Sadly, we knew this was going to happen. We saw it coming with H1N1 and Ebola. Our medical professionals knew it was not a matter of if but when and that is why the office in the White House was established. Our lack of a coherent national plan has cost us the lives of 340,000 of our brothers and sisters. January is predicted to be the worst month of all for deaths and even with the vaccinations we must not lower our guard. It is likely the death toll will reach half a million before we can rest.

But, with the vaccines, there is a bright spot on the horizon. We have a new President coming and a new administration that will be more attentive to such things. A bright spot is that infections from the flu are down a staggering 98% which proves the efficacy of masks, distancing and vaccinations.

My Take is that what is also proven is the value of your network of friends. Value yourself enough to want to help your friends. Talk to them, ask for help. Left alone we are of no use to anyone.