Annamaria on Monday
My country's response to the COVID pandemic has been abysmal, as the whole world knows. My state, of New York, has been much more sure-footed, especially considering the lack of consistent Federal advice and support. There has been here a soupçon of political infighting, but life in New York without that would be like cooking pasta without salting the water. When it comes to fighting COVID, what would have helped enormously would have been a health service organized on a national level, a convenience the USA has until now mightily opposed.
To say the US system is fractionated would to be like describing space as dotted here and there with a few heavenly bodies. Given this, I was not expecting the rollout of the vaccine to be well-organized or easy to navigate on a national scale. And with difficulties nation-wide, I figured New York would do no better than just okay. But I did expect okay. It may turn out to be not so bad, especially in comparison to the rest of the nation. The jury will be out on that for some time, I think. While we wait for the verdict, here is what's happened with me so far.
I received the message above at 11:30AM on 11 January and clicked the link immediately. It brought me to a webpage that listed several locations for Mount Sinai's vaccine centers. I chose the nearest one to me, in Union Square, and my first available choice of day and time they told me was 18 January at 9:30 AM. I agreed to that. I then was taken to a new site: Zocdoc, where I had to answer a survey about my experiences with COVID and anaphylactic shock. And once I was cleared to make an appointment, I then confirmed my time and place choices. Click!
What?? I immediately got a reply thanking me for my request for an appointment at Kings Highway in Brooklyn??
No. No. No. What happened to Union Square?
One hundred percent aware of the number inhabitants in my city many, many of whom were in competition with me at that moment, with great determination I found a way to cancel the Brooklyn appointment and started over. When I insisted on Union Square, it told me I had to call a given number. When I dialed it, I got a voice that said I was not qualified to call that number.
When I tried to get back to Square One, I had a little trouble finding it. I guess because it is nowhere near Union Square. In the meanwhile, I received an email from Anna at ZocDoc saying she was sorry that my appointment was cancelled.
I took it that she (it?) was talking, in the passive voice, about the appointment I myself had cancelled. I went on. I chose a location not too far from me, and I made another appointment.
E' Voila!
Hurrah!
But that was not the end of it. Anna from Zocdo, sent me that vague email again (two days after the first one), about how she was sorry that my appointment had been cancelled. Still, my knee-jerk determination told me, "Her apology is vague. It does not specify 20 January at 9:45."
Challenges to my self-confidence usually ramp up my determination. Until I knew for sure that I was screwed again, I decided that I would go to the appointment on the 20th armed with printouts of the confirmation - not only from Zocdoc but also from Mount Sinai.
I was both encouraged and discouraged when Mount Sinai then said something strange, but specific. It was canceling my appointment at the Kings Highway location for 18 January. This was not a good sign about the reliability of the system in general, but it helped my optimism along quite nicely.
Then in preparation for writing this blog, I was collecting screen shots, and that pursuit took me back to my page on the Mount Sinai site. A general notice said that, due to distribution problems with vaccine doses, all appointments were canceled for January 15 through January 19. OY!
But, it still looks as if the 20th is okay.
I went back to the Zocdoc site and found this gorgeous congratulations on my successful appointment, an encouragement that wasn't there yesterday:
I am well aware that the arc of this story follows, almost slavishly, the paradigm for a thriller. The question is will the tale reach its denouement on Wednesday or will the protagonist have more dragons to slay in her quest for immunization.
Time will tell....
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Fingers crossed! Will you be the first MIEer to succeed???
ReplyDeleteMy fingers too, Michael. If we go in age order--oldest first, or height order--shortest first, then first place is where I belong. By any other logical or scientific order, I imagine, would place somewhere in the middle or the end of the line. Stay tuned!!
DeleteOh man! My waiting in line for 5 1/2 hours doesn't seem so bad, compared to this. I DID get the vaccine, at least. I may even get the second dose--that is TBD. Good luck!!
ReplyDeleteThank you for your good wishes, Kaye. I am glad you managed to get inoculated! I am doing my best to keep positive about what might happen for me on Wednesday. But 51/2 hours?? Where did that happen, if you don’t mind saying.
DeleteI am in touch with a friend who is 87 and doesn’t even own a computer. The people from her synagogue are trying to help her. I worry a lot about the folks like her who have no one to help them. I hope there are places all over the country where they can go to get help.
It was pretty horrific. People in their 70s, 80s, and 90s, some of them waiting out in the cold overnight. I got there an hour and a half early, so only waited outside 4 hours. Then 1.5 inside. https://www.wvlt.tv/2021/01/02/individuals-share-experience-after-knox-county-sees-its-first-vaccine-clinic/
DeleteThere were 500 vaccines and I was #494. Hundreds, maybe 1000 more, who had waited at least an hour, were turned away.
DeleteSuch a travesty. What needed to happen was a huge effort to set up systems that would work on a national basis. This is what fragmentation does. Hundreds may thousands of different ways of doing the same thing. All with their own weaknesses. The creation of the successful vaccines in record time was close to miraculous. The researchers succeeded because they had science on their side. The roll out requires logic and truth. Things that we’ve had a paucity of on a Federal level of late.
DeleteAs you say, oy vey! Further proof that computers don't necessarily make things more organized.
ReplyDeleteGreat suspense, by the way 😁
ReplyDeleteThanks, Kwei. I have always been sure I could never write a thriller. But I do feel as if I am living in suspense!
DeleteYou're always more persistent than I, Sis. I have been battling for a shot in either arm in either of two States since the first date announced. They keep changing the ground rules, reneging on promises and generally continuing with the same level of confusion that's plagued our polity since the beginning of COVID. The good thing is, I figure I'll get a shot before my granddaughter's birthday in April--if I'm very lucky. BUT I'll consider it a family success if YOU score on the 20th. xx
ReplyDeleteI am hoping to succeed and pass my luck along to you, Bro.
DeleteI was vaccinated at the louisa Jordan hospital yesterday at 2.20. A well organised snake of 5000 people ( all key health care workers) moved in 20 minutes blocks. They had even made the carpark free. Good luck Annamaria!
ReplyDeleteI am so glad you are getting your protection, Caro. Here in New York, inoculating the health care workers went smoothly too. The only strange outcome was that, in some places, up to 1/3 of the health care people inexplicably refused the vaccine. That led to arguments about what to do with the leftover vials of vaccine from their allocation.
DeleteFingers crossed that our new federal administration will get a decent level of cooperation as it takes the helm and tried to steer our US ship of state to safety.
I hope you got it.
ReplyDeleteA friend had an appt. at Mt. Sinai, showed up and was turned away: no vaccines left.
She made another appt and I have to see what happens.
I wonder if urgent care centers are giving vaccines, as I live near a few of them. Mt. Sinai is a cab ride away,, and friends don't think they're safe from viral germs. The prior administration destroyed what was left of the national health care system, weakened and sidelined the CDC, etc. It seems as if the new administration means business: Dr. Fauci is on TV again, telling the truth. The U.S. is back in WHO. Top organizers are working on the vaccination plan. We shall see what happens. But I am singing the "Hallelujah" chorus and "Ode to Joy" now that the trainwreck is out of the White House. I wish TV did not show him or mention his name. What a mess he created everywhere, and then led a racist insurrection! Calmness and capability is all I'm asking for.
I was successful, Kathy. It was just luck. And it was with Mount Sinai, which had to cancel several days worth of appointments because they did not receive the numbers of doses they had expected. I just happened to have an appointment the day after more arrived.
DeleteIt's that fractionation again. And the fact that websites where one can make an appointment often crash when millions of people suddenly try to log on.
At least the grown ups are taking over the seats of power. Cleaning out the dumpsters the previous crowd left behind will take time. They had a party and trashed the house. Now the adults have returned and must deal with a terrible mess. I am just grateful that there are people willing to throw themselves into the task.