As I stated before, the reason I got vaccinated was due to a concerted effort by the federal and state governments to get all teaching staff vaccinated for a return to in-person classes as soon as possible. The thing is, the whole thing wreaked of political theater. I mean, they had chairs out for us to sit while we waited, they had hundreds of volunteers to shepard us into our rows where they had more chairs to sit in comfortably underneath huge tents. They had a big screen TV, live entertainment, volunteers walked around like airline stewards with carts containing electrolytes, water, popcorn, chips and baked goods. Even the governor made a photo-op appearance. After our shot we were given notepads with the University logo and the slogan, "Soon our lion hearts will hug each other again." (The school mascot are the Black Lions).
My mom, who is 76, did not get vaccinated when it was her turn. A mixture of fear to the side effects and having horrible seasonal allergies kept her from taking the plunge. After some extensive consideration she decided to go for it. Last week the government anounced that all people 50 AND OLDER, should register to get vaccinated if they still haven't done so. Monday she goes to the vaccination site and she gets rejected (after standing in line for 4 hours, because they are told they are only giving second doses. One of the staff memebers lets it slip that MAYBE on Thursday they could give everyone the vaccine. She returns on Thursday and she asks right away if she'll be able to get the vaccine. The staff member reassures her that yes, "But it's my FIRST dose, is that ok? Can I stay?" "Yes, yes, don't worry," He says. AN HOUR later some guy comes by and says through a megaphone, "Remember folks, we are only giving the SECOND dose today, only the SECOND Pfizer dose! Everyone else can go home." Clearly angry, my mom tells this guy that the President of the country AND the head of the Health department said in the news that ANYONE seeking to get vaccinated can go and WON'T be rejected. Dude just says, "Sorry, only second doses."
She told me how they didn't have any chairs for people, no tents to create shade, no one handing out water and clearly disorganized and misinformed. This is how we're treating our senior citizens. So it upset me even more to be used as a prop so the government can pat itself on the back as to what great a job they're doing, when in reality, they have no idea how to organize the vaccination effort for the rest of their citizens AND even though they want us to go back to in person classes, they have failed to come up with a similar vaccination plan for students. Fucking morons.
