Getting Vaccinated

This is an account of getting vaccinated Monday January 11, 2021.

In the Bingo like hit and miss of online appointments, I'd first gotten my wife on a waiting list at one clinic.  I got on as well, but she got a confirmation email and I didn't.  Most locations that showed up online had no available appointments. 

I started just rebooting the page several times a day, figuring that maybe if I get on just when someone puts up their announcement I can get an appointment before the run out.  About 6:15pm, I think on Friday, the Anchorage School District (ASD) had 259 appointments available Tuesday, January 12.  I snagged one for 3:30pm.  Then I started again, immediately, for my wife, but there was nothing left.

The next morning I suggested my wife check again - it was 7:15am.  The ASD had a lot again.  She tried to register, but it wouldn't allow her email. She was on an iPad, so I tried on my laptop.  There were still appointments and I was able to get her one at 1:45pm Monday January 11.  

I was seeing stuff online that things were a little loosey goosey about walk ins.  So I went with J to the ASD.  There was a short line outside - maybe 6 people.  I went in with Joan.  They checked her driver's license and pointed her in one direction.  I explained that I came with her, but had an appointment for the next day, could I possibly get my shot then and not have to come back.  She took some information, gave me a sticky note, and pointed me to another line.  It curved around back to the sign in desks.  There were white markers on the floor showing where 6 feet apart was.  Everyone, of course, had on masks.  A few people had plastic shields as well.  

This picture shows the line just after the sign in.  You can see the white 6" markers.  And there were a lot of chairs around for people like the man in front of me who had a cane.  Up ahead are the banks of tables for people to register people.  

The people who had appointments had been sent to another line, directly to the nurses giving the shots.  It was to the left of that cone on the far left.  

You can see a man sitting down signing in.  On the other side was someone just filling in the info that we had to fill in on the computer.  But these guys had to power to give us appointments right then and there.

This is pretty much the same picture, EXCEPT the guy you see where the main had been sitting in the previous picture was sanitizing the chair and table.  As soon as the guy got up, he swooped in and sprayed.  The person in front of me was moving up to the next white dot.  

Way up ahead are all the people with the needles.  It looks far, but with everyone 6 feet apart, it didn't take long.  

This is the nurse who vaccinated me.  The story in the newspaper was that school nurses were being used for this.  I looked at all the vaccine she sucked out of vial into the syringe and I knew it was going to hurt.  

But I was wrong.  She was great.  I barely felt the needle go in and the vaccine going into my arm was not seriously painful at all.  A mild irritation.  

She then pointed me to the next stations and explained what would happen.  

J wasn't as happy about the nurse who vaccinated her.

Someone took me to a table with a laptop to make my appointment for me second vaccination February 5.  Again, it was like the form I had filled out online, except there was no guessing if there would be an appointment. And this time I had to check yes for have you been vaccinated for COVID and mark 2nd rather than 1st.   Though we've since learned that the original plan to reserve a second vaccine for people when they got their first one has been abandoned as they try to get as many people vaccinated as possible.  They did that on the belief that there was plenty of reserve vaccine nationally.  But that turns out not to be true.  So at this point we're going on faith that there will be a second dose of Moderna on February 5.  

J was finished but saw me and came over to help me get the next appointment.  

Everyone was polite and ready to help.  The six foot distancing was violated a lot - obviously when I got the shot - but also by patients trying to figure out where to go.  

Somewhere along the line we got vaccination cards with the date and Moderna marked.  Someone suggested I take a picture of it, which I did.  That was a good idea since I already don't know where my card is.

The next station we signed out.  He checked that it was 15 minutes since we'd gotten the injections.  And off we went.  

Neither of us had any side effects but a sore arm, mine was barely noticeable.  The next day all my usual aches and pains were absent.  That only lasted a day.  

And I have to say I felt significantly lighter.  While I think I'm doing pretty well in isolation - certainly not bored - the idea that by mid-February I'm going to be significantly less likely to contract COVID, and if I do it should have much less severe effects on me, was liberating.  

So now I have five weeks to clean all the boxes that we have downstairs.  I can make a dental appointment while I still have teeth.  And I can get out and collect signatures for the Recall Dunleavy effort.  

Do I feel guilty that I got vaccinated while others have not?  I think guilty is a little strong.  I do think people who work in grocery stores and other essential jobs should be getting their shots now, but they are in this tier.  I'm also in this tier because I'm over 65.  But basically, I don't think that my waiting is going to make a difference.  (Yes, if all the healthy seniors waited a bit it might, but that isn't going to happen.)  And with the sizable number of people who are reluctant to get vaccinated - even health care workers - I think the push to just get vaccine into people's arms is the right approach.  We don't want any wasted doses because they were taken out of deep freeze but not enough people showed up in the next five days.  

Let's hope President Biden will be able to get the public administration of all this better organized and more efficient and effective and equitable.   We do know that the scientists and the president will be sending the same message out.  Let's hope that Trump's twitter ban means he won't be continuing to pollute the truth at nearly as high a level as he has been.