On January 22, 2020, the first case of Covid-19 was diagnosed here in the United States which means we will have been under the grips of the pandemic for one full year. Who would have ever thought that this would be the case? Not me for sure. Due to a total debacle at the federal level under the Trump Administration and the inconsistent responses by our states, the pandemic worsens day by day with 4,000 plus people succumbing to the virus daily. According to the CDC, 24,704,417 have been infected with Covid-19 while 412,592 have died. On January 8th, the United States hit an all time high with 314,093 new cases reported. Compare this to just two months ago in November when we broke a national record of 136,147 new cases. By now, most of us, myself included thought that we would be finished with this virus and things would be back to normal. No such luck! We, America failed the pandemic test. We got a big red
"F" on our report card.
There is hope however in the form of a vaccine who's distribution was also bungled by the previous administration. I could go into the multiple reasons for this failure, but I won't. Even though it was improperly handled at the Federal level, I have to say that in Luzerne County (PA.) vaccine distribution is moving forward. How do I know this? I know this because I received my first dose of the Moderna on Saturday. So far, 24 hours later, I have no side effects other than my arm is a little sore. I have not turned into a government controlled zombie either. I did however have a dream last night about brains....only kidding. The process involved in me getting the Covid-19 vaccine was relatively seamless. I went on the Geisinger web site and followed the prompts to their Covid page. There it gives you criteria to see what group you qualify for. I fell under the 1A category so I was able to get the vaccine. Here is the link for the PA. Department of Health web site so you can see where you qualify.
https://www.health.pa.gov/topics/disease/coronavirus/Vaccine/Pages/Vaccine.aspx
Once on the site, I simply completed the short survey, picked a date and boom, I had an appointment. The ease of getting the vaccine did not stop there. The day of the shot, I traveled to Gesinger in Pittston, put on my mask and got in line. After about a 2 minute wait, I was in the door, showed my ID and Health Insurance Card and had a seat. About 5 minutes later, I was placed in a small group of 4 people and ushered into the room where I would say about 50 employees including nurses had stations set up to administer the shots into arms. One at a time we were asked to approach a central reception desk where they checked you in and off you went with a nurse. After about 3 minutes of banter about Notre Dame football and being Irish, I had my shot. My nurse was a pleasant woman of Irish decent with red hair and freckles who liked Notre Dame. After I had the shot, they set up my appointment for my second shot and then I was ushered to a waiting area where I had to sit for about 20 minutes to make sure there were no immediate side effects. Luckily, I had none. After my time, I got a picture with my Covid-19 vaccination card by their wall of I Got The Shot and off I went.
As you can see, my experience with the Covid-19 vaccine was great. Geisinger provided a well organized and seamless experience. I think from leaving my driveway to coming back home was about 1 hour. Yep, you read that right, 1 hour. All social distancing and mask wearing protocol were followed. This was a well oiled machine, the way it should be all over the country. The bottom line here is everyone should get the vaccine when it is available to them. The sooner we get this all done, the sooner we can get back to normal. Please be part of the solution to the Covid-19 pandemic and not one of the stumbling blocks. I will make sure to keep you all posted if I have any side effects over the next few weeks.
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