Hi Betty,
Our U.S. Public Health Service, Homeland Security and other groups need to be mobilized for an all our public health immunization effort. I am not laying blame; however this should have been done months ago. Now we are faced with insufficient vaccine supplies and, in some cases, syringes, needles, etc. to administer the vaccines. Some states support the vaccine deliver, others do not.
I cannot speak for your state. Here in Tucson, I do know that two hospitals delivered both doses to health providers working the front lines with Covid patients. I also know that a Walgreens pharmacist has been going to nursing homes and extended care facilities (as you are suggesting) to give vaccines to providers and the nursing home and extended care residents.
The university I retired from (and work for from home very part time) has frequently taken the lead in advancing science. At least one of our faculty has currently been named to the National Science Foundation.
As to why I might have gotten the vaccine, I am an emeritus from this university. I am over 75 years of age and have a complex medical condition. I am one of the people in the 1b group given my age and health problems. While I was in line, I noticed that most of the others were my age and older. I had just received the original screening call the past Monday and was contacted again on Tuesday to do a screening and arrange for an appointment and the ONLY day available was Friday. So I drove 125 miles one way, paid to stay overnight, get to the campus for my 10am vaccine, then drive 125 miles back to Tucson so that I would be near my primary care provider in the event there were post vaccine issues. I expect this to happen again with vaccine #2.
As to teachers, I am sorry if you were bumped for them. I need to tell you, though, that my daughter, who lives in the midwest, is an 8th grade teacher, is expected to be IN the classroom, has some students who could care less about learning, has some parents who expect the teachers to 'child sit' for them and teachers are as susceptible to exposure if not more so, than some other front line workers, like grocers. If I could have traded my shot for my daughter to receive, I would have, no questions asked. Teachers are a most undervalued profession. I don't want my daughter to die. She has a 20 y/o son with severe disabilities, a 16 y/o at home, and here retired Air Force husband has PTSD. In addition to teaching and managing a class that is way too large, she has these family members to care for.
There is no doubt that this pandemic situation here in the U.S. is a problem that has gone unsolved for way tooo long. There are also way to many naysayers who still think Covid is a hoax. All of this has to be dealt with along with coordinating and distributing vaccines to 50 states and territories with diverse populations that may or may not want them. I am actually hoping that the current administration declares the Wars Act (or whatever it is called) to mobilized materiales and implement statewide vaccinations across the nation and our territories.
