![]() ![]() I hadn’t realized how worried I had been and how much I’d submerged that worry to get through my days - just as I’ve had to do with my daughter returning to in-person school. Some of the stress of the past year lifted. As soon as I confirmed the details, I had an unexpected, immense cathartic release - just sobbing, for about five minutes. Next to me, on the kitchen island, was a sheet of orange construction paper cribbed from my daughter’s art supply that functioned as a cheat sheet with my parents’ pertinent info (address, phone, email, DOB), a list of PA zip codes, and reminders as to when certain sites were likely to release appointments.Īfter about a week of research and a week of dedicated searching, I hit the jackpot and booked them appointments. On my phone, I’d open my favorite vaccine hunter Facebook group, Maryland Vaccine Hunters, where every morning people would post updates about their successes. I had tabs open to Giant, Weis Markets, and Wegmans, as well as a few local pharmacies and health departments. I had three browsers open: Chrome, Firefox, and Safari. But I also had a weird sort of confidence about the entire situation, that I would make this happen for them through sheer force of will.Įvery morning, I’d drag myself from my bed, go downstairs in the dark, turn on the coffee machine, open my laptop, and quietly get to work. I was particularly concerned about my mother, who, as a public librarian, had been going into work throughout the pandemic. ![]() I knew I was catastrophizing and wallowing in my own anxiety, but I couldn’t help myself. If only I had been paying attention to the day they had opened group 1a to people over the age of 65, I thought. The more time I spent wrapping my head around the state of the rollout, the more I worried that I had missed a chance to save my parents’ lives. (They’ve since changed all the dots blue, and added more colored dots?! It’s terrible.) Unfortunately, none of the locations had any availability, regardless of color. The state’s department of health posted a digital map with thousands of points indicating hospitals or pharmacies with vaccines, marked in red (out of vaccine) or green (vaccine to offer). I’d left a high-pressure job in early 2020 to work for myself, then the pandemic hit, and like so many other women, I found myself primarily taking care of my daughter, putting my career on the back burner as I struggled to come up with ways to make the days and weeks pass while keeping everyone safe and relatively sane.Īt the time, there was no centralized information source or federal rollout, so it took a few days to get up to speed on what, exactly, was happening in Pennsylvania. I’d wake before dawn, between 5 and 6 am, and work on vaccine hunting until around 7:30, when my 4-year-old daughter got up. I devoted a few hours per day to the task - enough to make me feel like I was seriously trying, but not so much that I’d burn out right away. ![]() It didn’t take too long to realize that trying to book vaccine appointments for my parents was basically turning into a part-time job. I decided to try to help them, but my efforts were fruitless. They didn’t realize that the situation in Pennsylvania at the time was a disaster - that millions of people were now eligible and there wasn’t enough supply. They immediately registered with their local health department and seemed certain that they’d soon get a call. At 69 and 67, they became eligible for a Covid-19 vaccine in Pennsylvania the week of the presidential inauguration. ![]()
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