Family Vaccines

For the last couple weeks, while my employer offered vaccines to colleagues, they kind of teased that vaccines might be available for family/household members too, but they were still working it out. I figured they wouldn't have even offered the possibility unless it was already pretty close to a done deal, so assumed we'd hear something within the next few weeks. Well first thing this morning, a message came out saying family members were now eligible, and about an hour after that, we got further details about how to register them. Then everyone tried to do it at once and crashed the web site 😅 But within a short time, my husband was able to register - he'll get his first dose in a few days!

Certain non-household members, including parents and grandparents, were also included, but my own parents and grandparents are already either fully or partially vaccinated. However, in-laws were a bit of a gray area, and later further guidance came out that parents in-law could be included, so we hurried to register my husband's parents as well!

Lest anyone think any of us are jumping the line:

1. My employer made an arrangement with the US Department of Health and Human Services to vaccinate colleagues, and now to further vaccinate their household contacts.
2. These vaccines are not coming out of the allotment to the US or individual states, nobody is "cutting" in line; if anything, we are stepping out of the line and allowing others to shift up.
3. The goal is to vaccinate as many people as possible.

I am seeing more and more friends and contacts announcing that they have been vaccinated; it's really rolling along now! Unfortunately, for a lot of people it's almost become a second job trying to find appointments for themselves or their loved ones. The president has announced that the vaccine should be made available to everyone beginning May 1, and our governor has mandated that the state health department should offer appointments for everyone in the first category by March 28, so hopefully it becomes a little easier to schedule now. I know a lot of places were only releasing a few appointments at a time because they didn't want to overschedule and then end up not getting the supplies they were promised, but I think it would be less annoying to at least get an appointment, even if you ended up having to reschedule, than to spend all day refreshing various web sites trying to catch an available spot.