On Sunday, my wife and I had our first vaccine dose. We’re not technically eligible, but a friend pointed me to a news article about a local, one-day clinic. No appointment necessary. Come one, come all. So we went.
“The article was wrong,” we were told when we arrived. Appointments only. Nevertheless, we and hundreds of others could line up and, if there was a space, we could get a vaccine. “Plan to wait a couple of hours.”
About thirty minutes later, we were vaccinated. It seems there were a lot of empty spaces on the schedule, which presumably would have seen many of the people working sitting around, waiting for something to happen. And, at the end of the day, hundreds of fewer vaccinated people. Good thing the media got it wrong.
In the US, where the vaccination process is going much quicker than it is here in Canada, groups of volunteers are helping people who either don’t have the time or the computer skills to scour the internet for empty spots in clinic schedules that otherwise would have gone unused.
Imagine volunteering large amounts of one’s time to helping strangers get vaccinated. Because the need is real – as is the barrier to access for some.
And because “us” and “them” is something we tell ourselves that the virus doesn’t understand.
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