REPORT FROM THE VACCINATION TRAIL
I am one of the luckiest people in Hillsborough County, FL.
I am one of the 10,500 Hillsborough residents inoculated with the Pfizer vaccine. On January 4, 1500 vaccines were made available to people over sixty five; the website crashed in thirty seconds, and no one answered the phones; no one has any idea what happened to those 1500, but we presume they went into 1500 arms. On Monday, another 9,000 were made available, and an improved website allowed me to book the first for yesterday, and the second for February 3. I had to drive from my home in Tampa to neighboring Plant City, but that’s no more than a half hour before morning traffic, and my scheduled time was between eight and nine a.m.
Hillsborough County is doing as fine a job as anyone could under the circumstances. They were given virtually no warning either week, as vaccines are being distributed in a haphazard, willy-nilly manner from the feds to the state, and our governor is Ron DeSantis, the nation’s worst. He just shrugged off all responsibilities and referred everything to the counties. (Because, as we all know, every poor rural county is fully equipped to manage a pandemic response.) Thankfully, Hillsborough is not particularly poor or rural, and our Health, Fire and Sheriffs Departments handled the crowds beautifully, with great courtesy and efficiency. (Had Hillsborough County Sheriff Chad Chronister been in charge of security at the Capitol Building on January 6, the building would not have been breached, and that brave police officer still alive. BTW, the Sheriff is a Republican, the only one elected countywide, one of the few non-crazy ones remaining America. Some may call him a RINO, since he is a regular at County Democratic Party functions; his wife is very active in the organization.)
It was totally drive- through, at a large park, and from the time I arrived until the time I finished my fifteen minute wait afterward, to make sure no ill effects, was a few minutes short of an hour. Not bad to save one’s life. There is no cost to anyone, but if you have insurance, they ask that you provide the info, so they can try and get paid. I’m all in favor of my home county getting reimbursed for helping America defeat a pandemic!
I encourage every American who is able to get a vaccine as soon as possible. We lost over 4,300 Americans the past twenty four hours. There has not been one death among the almost eight million inoculated Americans; the same holds true in the EU, Israel, and other nations that are inoculating. The dangers are definitely not from the vaccine; the danger comes from the deadly pandemic and the incompetent government response. If anyone has questions about the vaccine, ask your personal physician or local health department. Do not be tricked by anti-vaxxers, talk show hosts or politicians who say otherwise; none of them have any credentials, but they do have hidden agendas!
