For couple seeking shot, Florida faster
Phil and Roberta Rice knew they wanted to get the COVID-19 vaccine when it became available to them. They just weren’t sure where to get it.
Should they get it in New York, they wondered, where they live most of the year? Or Florida, where the retired schoolteachers from Delmar were supposed to be wintering if not for a pandemic that had made travel risky?
In the end, Florida decided the issue for them when it became one of the first states to open vaccine eligibility to people older than 65.
“We were up in the air,” Phil Rice, 73, said. “So when we saw that it looked more likely that
we’d be able to get it in Florida much sooner, maybe even months sooner, we decided to go for it.”
New York opened vaccine eligibility to people older than 65 on Tuesday, but the announcement caught many by surprise and caused appointments to immediately be packed well into the spring. Previously, many younger than 75 weren’t expected to receive the vaccine for months. Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo said he made the change to bring New York’s eligibility criteria in line with the Centers for Disease Control criteria, which was also amended Tuesday.
The Rices didn’t know that at the time, so they set their sights on getting an appointment in Florida and succeeded. Their journey to vaccination highlights how inconsistent state and federal policies around vaccine eligibility have sown confusion nationwide, and how some are afforded earlier opportunity for vaccination because they can afford to travel.
Race for vaccine
From their Delmar home, the Rices began dialing the number to make an appointment for vaccinations in Lee County, Florida — just north of their second home in Naples — as soon as the scheduling window opened at noon Jan. 4.
“Thank goodness for that redial button,” Phil Rice said. “We got everything from busy signals to notices that the number was not in service to this number is not answering. We just kept going. My wife says it’s because of our attempts at getting Red Sox tickets online that we were so tenacious.”
At one point, they each got a recording asking them to leave a callback number, so they did. Finally, after 15 minutes of redialing, the line went dead.
“I figured, well, we probably didn’t get it and went about our business,” Rice said.
Nearly four hours later, however, they got a callback. They had managed to snag two of the approximately 5,000 vaccine doses the Lee County government would be giving out that week. They found out later that the doses were claimed within the first 10 minutes of the line being open.
In New York, Florida and elsewhere, people are in a similar race to schedule vaccine appointments before phone lines go dead, reservations dry up and vaccines run out. New York’s hotline for scheduling vaccine appointments crashed the same afternoon it opened, as people waited hours to speak to someone only to find themselves cut off with no option for getting back to their spot in the queue.
Others who can afford it are asking themselves whether they should wait for an appointment to open up locally, or make travel arrangements to get vaccinated at whatever place will take them first.
The Rices flew to Florida that week and received one shot each of the Moderna vaccine Jan. 7. They flew back on Monday, but said they intend to drive back down for their second dose and will ride out the rest of the winter at their home down south.
‘Peace of mind’
The Rices are both in their early 70s and have underlying health conditions that make them more susceptible to severe complications or death from COVID -19. Phil Rice, a director at the Theater Barn in New Lebanon, said he understands if people are envious of their ability to get the vaccine so soon.
“I wish I could somehow make everyone have vaccine right away,” he said. “I do feel bad that other people haven’t been as lucky as we have in that sense.”
The Florida Department of Health said it has no residency requirement for people to receive the vaccine in Florida. Anyone is eligible so long as they meet the state’s eligibility criteria, which currently covers long-term care facility residents and staff, people 65 and older, and health care personnel with direct patient contact, though hospitals may vaccinate people they deem vulnerable as well, the department said.
“The vaccine is available to residents, non-residents and part-time residents who meet the authorization criteria,” the department said in an email.
Rice said he has some misgivings about people who have no connections to Florida flying in to swoop up vaccines just because they can. He and his wife have had a home in Florida for years, and would have been down there this time of year if not for the pandemic.
“I think more than anything else it’s peace of mind,” Rice said. “The vaccine will make it much less likely that we will become ill and hopefully we may be able to spend a little more time with our family. But I don’t think it’s going to mean we stop wearing masks and social distancing. I think we’ll continue to do those things until more people have gotten the vaccine.”