As a whole country it's like we are one big bumbling neurotic Uncle Sam.
It does look that way, Mouse. As I understand it, the cause is primarily due to no centralized planning or control of the rollout. States with vastly varying resources and capabilities were left to figure it out and implement on their own, for too long, with some falling for specious emotional arguments about "freedom." The administration has a huge repair/catch up job on its hands. It'll never be perfect but it could be a whole lot better! As to equity, shades of Katrina....
I still feel some guilt over my random luck in landing a vax appointment. It was due to a complete fluke and inadequate forward-planning (state and federal). As the national vax depot released some more doses, a message went out locally intended for PART of group 1B (because they don't yet have enough doses for all so they were working on signup queue order once the 75+ and frontline workers had been covered--I had signed up the first day), and then some grandson-or-other shared it on social media after he saw an elder use that link for an appointment, and bingo, thousands tried to get in. Once the health district realized the mistake (opening the pop-up site w/o age restrictions) they had to turn away anyone under 65, even if they'd managed to snag an appt slot online.
The health district immediately owned and apologized for the error and have since been predictably pilloried for it (understaffed and underfunded as they are). But I felt badly that someone poorer, less computer-savvy, less healthy, with less social support no doubt missed out on a dose because I had been forwarded that link by a very alert similarly-privileged friend.
I read an ethicist article about this some time ago, and the view came down to, it's not your individual fault if you're offered an opportunity for the vax, and every person who gets vaccinated is helping society survive the pandemic and sooner, so if you do get the chance, take it. You're just one member of the herd. And then help others if there's some way you can be of support. (Like a friend of mine who spends hours standing in the cold directing traffic at vaccination sites when one opens for a time.) The urge to sacrifice your turn is moral but impractical and won't solve anything. So, I took it. ?????
As to vax-deniers, that makes me sad. There's so much mistrust of science and "expertise" and advanced education and lack of recognition of the negative power of uninformed online communities that draw identity and comfort from sharing "secret knowledge" or believing in conspiracies. I worry most about children who have -- and will -- come down with dangerous diseases because a parent won't trust the scientists who have done brilliant, dedicated work for so many years to develop vaccines and further understand immunity. (Though not immunologists, Dorothy Hodgkin and Clara Barton must be spinning in their graves....) It's unfathomable to me that so many still believe in the discredited, debunked vaccines-cause-autism myth that was spread from one sloppy scientist's paper in the Lancet decades ago. That one piece of misinformation fed a whole group of conspiracies with tragic results. Never mind that it was reviewed, found scientifically completely wanting, and even retracted by the journal and subsequently denounced by a huge number of reputable researchers. One "byte" of misinfo went viral (no pun intended) and was enough to infect a culture with ignorance.
Mistakes and evils and greed have happened from the Tuskegee experiments and worse, to all kinds of medical errors and profit-driven strategies ongoingly, but I've never understood the throw-baby-out-with-the-bathwater reaction. As screwed up and unequal as health care here is, we also have extraordinarily dedicated practitioners and researchers, and as a nation have the potential to lead dazzling science and public health. Yet so far we've squandered those hopes to emotion, poor education and unclear, uninformed long-range thinking and planning. And underfunding. Maddening. I wish they'd let Bill and Melinda Gates take it over!
I'm feeling so sad for freezing, dying Texans right now. Wind turbines account for 10% of their winter energy use, yet that misinformation piece is already being churned.
ALL that said, this isn't about my politics, just my sense from observing what people go through on all sides of any aisle, that the answer really is that we need to love and look out for each other. And take every opportunity to do that we're given.
Putting away soap box and I hope anybody who has a different take on any of these opinions understands I'm not insisting I'm right, just explaining what my opinion is and a little about why.
I don't need to be right, or win a debate, or convert or be converted. I have people I love and respect in my life who see the world and similar issues very, very differently. Who have different backgrounds and experiences and identities and politics and have come to different conclusions. I love them no less -- even more, I'd say -- because we've all intentionally found ways to cherish and nurture our friendships in spite of those differences, even when it was difficult. Given the state of things, I recognize that as a precious exception I'm lucky to experience. For that I'm intensely grateful! (As I have been for being informed and changed by some of those differences. When I stop learning or assume I know it all, I'm cooked.)
Thanks for tolerating this "column." If it offends or stirs any negativity, I'll delete.
hugs
Hops
