Driving home relief
People say 2-hour wait is worth it for vaccine at state’s largest hub
Patricia Perez said she’s lost track of how many doctors she’s called in search of a COVID-19 vaccine.
The 60-year-old is a cancer survivor, and has spent the last year in a state of lockdown as the virus killed six of her neighbors and one of her husband’s best friends. Then, two weeks ago, she learned she was eligible for a vaccine through the new supersite that opened Wednesday at NRG Park.
She and her husband spent more than two hours in traffic on Main Street before finally receiving their vaccinations through their SUV window Wednesday morning. Once their turn came, the process took about 45 minutes, including a 15minute period of observation for side effects. Perez said the traffic
was a minor inconvenience after so much uncertainty and loss.
“I’ve lost so much sleep over all of this mess,” she said. “And once I got the injection, all I could think was, ‘Thank you Jesus.’ I just felt a big load lift off my shoulders.”
They were among the roughly 6,000 people who were expected to receive vaccinations at NRG park on Wednesday, and who shared in a sense of relief after a year that has killed more than a half-million Americans.
The new site is the largest vaccine hub in Texas, and officials expect to inoculate roughly 126,000 people there over the next eight weeks. They hope it will also ease the burden on smaller clinics that have been inundated with requests for vaccines over the last few months.
That high demand for vaccines was evident hours before the facility officially opened at 8 a.m. Traffic on the streets surrounding NRG Park stretched for at least a quarter-mile throughout the day, frustrating many who waited hours for scheduled appointments that are supposed to last 45 minutes from start to end.
“It was terrible,” said Roger Wilson, a 60-year-old with high blood pressure. He and his wife, Terry, waited more than an hour to enter the park.
But he said it was worth it — two hours later, the couple felt like they could finally see family and friends they’ve missed for almost a year.
“It’s just a huge relief,” Terry Wilson said.
Lauren Lefebvre, regional director for the Federal Emergency Management Agency, said late Wednesday that there were a variety of reasons for the delays. Some people had issues with the electronic codes required to check in for appointments, and officials may tweak some of their procedures to decrease the amount of paperwork required to enter.
Traffic issues were further exacerbated by cars arriving early or late. Lefebvre said FEMA expects to add more workers in the coming days, and some of the traffic routes could change around the stadium to ease the flow of cars trying to enter.
The city and county have made vulnerable populations — including the unhoused, and those without internet or the ability to travel — a focal point of their pandemic response. The NRG site is drive-in only, which has raised concerns about equitable access.
Houston Health Department Director Stephen Williams added that the NRG site is only one part of the city’s broader vaccination efforts, and will open up availability for “other providers, many of which are located in hard-hit areas but have been unable to keep up with demand.
“Of course we’re trying to target those individuals who are most vulnerable, but (NRG) is not exclusively for individuals that are most vulnerable,” he said. “Having an additional 6,000 slots to see people is a really good thing for Houston and Harris County — and we don’t want to minimize the value of that — but it isn’t everything.”
For Chloe Cauley, 27, the NRG site offered the first bit of hope after a year that’s felt anything but hopeful. Her parents are both in their 60s, and her dad had a stroke last year so is at a high risk.
“Relief isn’t the word,” said Cauley, who was eligible for a vaccine because of a preexisting condition.
“Maybe after the second shot. It feels like the end of a mourning process.”
Javier Perez felt similarly relieved. His wife, Patricia’s, earlier battle with cancer required constant vigilance over the last 12 months, and one of his best friends also died from the virus. Days ago, he found out his brother and nephew both have COVID.
The two are doing OK, he said, but their diagnoses added to the stress that he said has hovered over pretty much every day of the last year. At least some of that began to fade on Wednesday, he said.
The couple’s daughter is getting married this week in a scaleddown outdoor ceremony. The vaccines won’t provide them protection in time for the wedding, but they did give him a sense of hope for the future. And that was worth the hassle of traffic.
“Two hours is nothing for getting that vaccine,” he said. “We were prepared to stay all day if we had to.”