Americans are hitting the road to get vaccinated

[brooklynite]

Washington Post

As I headed south on Interstate 55 in central Illinois recently, windshield wipers slap-tapping against a heavy rain, an overhead sign blared a warning in all-caps golden neon letters. “Pay Attention,” it said, “You Never Know What Is Ahead.”

Fitting, I thought. By driving 169 miles from my home in suburban Chicago to a downstate CVS Pharmacy for my first coronavirus vaccination, I was investing seven hours of a workday to protect myself from what may be ahead. As a 62-year-old with preexisting conditions, I had decided to take a one-day “vaccication.”

One year into the pandemic, Americans are focused on travel precautions, vaccine passports and securing vaccination appointments. While the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released new travel guidelines saying it is safe for fully vaccinated people to travel domestically, the paradox is that some unvaccinated Americans are traveling during the pandemic to get a vaccination.

According to a recent study by West Health Policy Center, which focuses on seniors’ health care, and the University of Pittsburgh School of Pharmacy, vaccination distribution and availability across the country varies widely. There are some counties in which 100 percent of the population lives more than 10 miles from a vaccination facility, and others with fewer than one facility per 10,000 residents.

“Some 9 million Americans live further than 10 miles from the closest vaccine administration site. Requiring even one person to travel outside of their community to access the vaccine is a burden but asking this of millions of Americans is its own public health emergency,” Sean Dickson, director of health policy at the West Health Policy Center, said in an email.

[MissB]

1. We stayed in state

But traveled 45 minutes outside our metro area to a mass vaccination site. It was the only lace we could get an appointment.

Our son traveled from Pennsylvania to Ohio to get one.

[exboyfil]

2. My daughter and SIL did the same

She got her shot in a small town on the way to see her inlaws. My SIL has his scheduled next week in another Iowa smalll town.

My wife and I just went to our community center and got our shots. We had our second yesterday. Filling a bit rough today (my wife is worse).

[MineralMan]

3. Many people are doing that. I have friends

who have driven two hours to a Walgreens in the outstate area of MN. While more vaccine is available in the Metro area, there are also far more people. Often more rural areas have an excess of vaccine for the local demand. Part of that is the political atmosphere. Rural areas tend to have a higher percentage of Republicans, who appear to be shunning vaccination.

However, sometimes you don't have to go very far to find those conditions. My wife found a next-day shot at a Walgreens just 15 miles from our home. It's in a smallish outer suburb in a very conservative county. She gets her second shot tomorrow at the same pharmacy, scheduled when she got the first one.

[Chautauquas]

4. I got an appointment 30 miles from home

My wife was lucky enough to get an appointment at the local hospital, two blocks from our house, but I ended up with an appointment at Walgreens 30 miles away. I would have been willing to drive hundreds of miles for the vaccine, so no complaints here.

[Treefrog]

5. I was going out of state, but then found one in state.

I’m still driving about 150 miles. I love road trips so no problem for me there.

[CrackityJones75]

6. Just got my second shot yesterday

Just got my second shot yesterday. Drive an hour out and back to get the Pfizer.

[Hoyt]

7. In February, the closest mass vaccine site appointment was 50+ miles away, we took it.

Nice drive into the mountains. Was actually sorry after I got my second because we made a day of it both times, sort of a Sunday drive with purpose.

[DFW]

8. Hitting the road is one way to put it.

We're going 5000 miles. We had family reasons to be in North America anyway, so it's not like we're flying from Germany to Dallas and back only for the injections. The trip involves two taxi rides (one to Düsseldorf, one from the DFW airport), a train trip down to the Frankfurt airport, and an 11 hour flight to Dallas. But living in a country that just boasted this morning that the first wave of 79-year-olds (under 80 finally!) are now in line to get vaccinated, if we had the chance to get it now instead of late August or mid-September, we would do it. The occasion presented itself, so we took it.

Granted, Dallas is a 1550 mile detour from New York, our real destination, but in the overall scheme of things, it seemed like the better course of action.

[Lovie777]

9. I took my father-in-law for his second jab at Cal State Long Beach ....

which is a good distance from our home. I was impressed with the set up. He has health insurance through Kaiser and also Veteran insurance as well.

For Cal State Long Beach - it was like an assembly line. It had to be at least 500 people there for shots but the lines moved fast and efficient. I'll say for that day Kaiser must have given shots to at least 2,500 people.

[FakeNoose]

10. You do what you have to do

If it means driving to a small town 2 hours away, okay fine! This is enabled by the online appointment system that we've all been using - or trying to use - rather than going in person and hoping to get lucky.

If we had to go somewhere without an appointment and stand in line for hours, it would be a disaster. Fights would break out, sick people would be infecting others, people would try to bully or buy their way to the front of the line. The online appointments, as clumsy as they are, are clearly the best way to do this. It allows me to decide if it's worth it driving two counties away, or maybe I should just wait for some place closer to me.

Now that I have gotten my 2 shots, I'm able to help others get theirs.

[mnhtnbb]

11. I got lucky with an appointment at my local county health department

which was only a 20 minute drive (less than 10 miles on surface streets) from my house.

The first place to offer me an appointment from a wait list was another county health department a 45 minute drive from my house. I canceled that when my local health department came through with an earlier appointment. I'm now almost 4 weeks post my second vax. Had my first hair cut since Feb 2020 last week and have my first dental cleaning since then scheduled for later this month. Hooray for vax!