Why it’s hard to get on to a list to get the Covid-19 vaccination.
In order for life to go back to normal, we will need large portions of society vaccinated for COVID-19. However, it is hard to get vaccinated due to a shortage of the vaccine.
Because of the number of people that live in California, there is a shortage of the vaccine, and California is restricting vaccine distribution to specific groups. There are also phases for the age groups, and currently, you have to be 65 or older to get the vaccine or in a critical need category. Also, this is because of how the weather is and how they store the vaccines. California’s vaccine rollout includes different phases over time, taking age and jobs into consideration when deciding who gets priority. Currently, you either have to work in a critical need category or be age 65 or older in order to be eligible to receive the vaccine.
The critical job category includes healthcare workers, long-term care residents, agriculture and food workers, education and childcare workers, and emergency service workers. Not only is distribution limited for the vaccine, but the demand is far beyond the supply at the moment, as 29 million Californians await the vaccine. It doesn’t help that there are also shortages occurring of what is actually in supply. Sutter Health miscommunicated with the government and now 95,000 people have gotten their appointments for vaccination canceled.
There isn’t one specific place to get an appointment for the vaccine. One has to go through multiple websites such as your medical network, California Department of Health, drugstores and other websites.
Some people may not understand what they need to do to get on the list for the vaccine, particularly for older people. This is very interesting because people older than 75 could have gotten the vaccine last month. Older residents could also be disadvantaged by a technology gap, making it more difficult for them to get on the list as many appointments are made online.
I recommend to people that are having a hard time getting the vaccine to talk with their primary care doctors. I think that we need to have better ways of administering the vaccination because there are a lot of people in the Bay Area who could have a problem getting on the vaccination list. Currently, the only people eligible to get vaccinated are those aged 65 and older or those in a critical job, or people in education, but they need to be able to easily make an appointment for the vaccine.
Hopefully, the number of vaccine doses will increase and the distribution of it will be more easily accessible so that enough people can get the vaccine and society can return to normal.
Brandon Byrne is the social media editor for The Express. Follow him @brandonbyrne18.
