A selfish struggle for wealth in an antibody?
My mother, Sandy, is a 77-going-on-78-year-old widow, having lost her husband of 54 years in February 2019, well before a viral pandemic paralyzed the world. She is a former elementary school teacher, an amazing cake baker and a most loving mother. Long before COVID, my mom was lonely. But, now that sadness is compounded by fear and depression — fear of getting sick, fear of dying, fear of her only daughter getting sick, fear of being a burden, fear of being even more alone in the world — she has taken self-isolating at home seriously. And the price she has paid is solitary confinement.
Hope exists in a vaccine, for her and for all of us. Yet, we must each wait for our personal turn at hope fairly, patiently and without greed. My mother does not have diabetes or COPD or cancer. She is not obese. And, at 77¾, we are sure she is not pregnant. However, based on her age, she is eligible for vaccination
under Phase 1B of the New Mexico guidelines instituted by the Department of Health. She is eager to take the vaccine and is certain that, if infected with COVID, she will die.
So she registered promptly on our state vaccine website and was honest on her application about her health. Still, she waits. Yes, New Mexico has a high vaccination rate, but that does not mean all shots are going to approved people under both the CDC and New Mexico guidelines. Are people with more money, the right political connections or a willingness to be dishonest sometimes getting the vaccine in advance of those who are approved under state guidelines? It seems so.
As people obtain some level of immunity, they become wealthy in health. As a result, we are witnessing the selfish struggle of people jumping the line to feel protected and privileged by getting their vaccine first. In the past week, I have seen friends on social media, young healthy people from all over the country who do not work in health care, brag about obtaining their first shots. Photos of vaccination record cards pop up in my feed accompanied by boastful comments from people claiming to keep us all safe. But is that really what is going on? Or are we just acting selfishly in the ways that COVID has tirelessly taught us not to be?
All levels of government are facing real supply and demand issues. Every state has received fewer doses of vaccine than could possibly fulfill the demand. Pfizer and Moderna can manufacture only so much product at a time, our national vaccine stockpile is dwindling and now we are lacking the requisite number of low dead space syringes to maximize doses per vial.
On top of all this, I watch my mom struggle to access her only lifeline, a vaccine shot, while others steal her place in line. Recently, a local nonprofit here in New Mexico received notification that their employees could be vaccinated due to a miscommunication from the New Mexico Department of Health. The appointment registration code was then passed to over 400 organization volunteers, when many of these people may not be eligible under the current phase of vaccination rollout. My mom is livid and she wonders if this is just another way to devalue the lives of elderly people in our community. In so many ways, our elderly are the have-nots.
I ask each of you, each governor, each vaccine provider, each person accepting your vaccination appointment — have we learned so little over the past year? We all may contract this virus anywhere, but only some of us are more likely to die. Let the most vulnerable get the vaccine equitably. Let my mother feel the wealth of the COVID vaccine, as she is due, and let her have a chance to live without fear.