COVID-19 vaccine rollout leaves people scrambling to find shots
Diane Kearns sat at her oldschool wooden desk, black hair pulled into a ponytail and face devoid of makeup, and prepared to go to war.
The Austin, Texas, mother of three was fiercely focused on one thing: finding a COVID-19 vaccine for her 18-year-old son, Dean, whose disabilities include cerebral palsy, seizure disorder and legal blindness.
K earns picked up her Android phone on Dec. 30 and started punching in numbers. Between pounding coffee and banana nut bread, she called 15 grocery stores that had received vaccines. She called Dean's doctor. She called pharmacies.
No. No. No. They were out of vaccines. They served only first responders. They took only current patients. They accepted only people on waiting lists.
And still, she kept calling, anywhere she could think of, at one point simultaneously using her landline and cellphone, knowing she'd be on hold for a while.
She drank more coffee. She ate more banana nut bread. And she got angry – though that didn't stop her.
“That anger drives a lot of my action,” Kearns said.
Anger and frustration are surging across the country as the federal government leaves states to handle the distribution of COVID-19 vaccines. Through Friday, states had received 22.1 million doses of the vaccines. Of those, about 6.7 million – less than onethird – had been administered.
Poor messaging and inconsistent procedures are forcing people to scramble on their own to find vaccines.
For a 71-year-old Florida man and his 66-year-old wife, the chaos meant rising before dawn to get in line for a vaccine, only to be turned away after learning many of the supplies had been given out to people who'd camped overnight, against the express wishes of authorities.
For a Texas man and advocate of getting aid for the Hispanic community during COVID-19, it means he can't find a way to vaccinate his 93-year-old grandmother, who spends all day in her recliner and refuses to go outside for fear of catching the virus.
And for K earns ,54, it means extending her family's 11-month lockdown. Her husband, who recently got COVID-19 while taking care of his 96-year-old father, had to leave home for weeks. Her children have been quarantined to their rooms and everyone has had to wear masks around Dean. They canceled Thanksgiving and Christmas festivities with family.
“I can't think of the last time I kissed anybody,” Kearns said. “Probably February. Because there's such fear. I miss hugging my family.”
`Falling through the cracks'
Federal officials point to a host of reasons for the lag in vaccine distributions, including vaccination systems still gearing up, federal funding that hasn't yet been disbursed to states and a requirement that states set aside vaccines for long-term-care facilities.
Add to that two holidays, bad weather in some areas and the need to train medical professionals to prepare and administer two vaccines that require special storage and handling.
A hodgepodge of rules and procedures across the country adds to the confusion. In Florida, for example, seniors 65 and older are in the first phase of vaccine distribution. In Texas, seniors and medically fragile people are in the second phase. In New York, they are in the third phase.