Yay and @rocklobster yay!
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Quote from the article:
"Region 11* has not technically met the stateās criteria for moving down to Tier 2, as it hasnāt met hospital capacity requirements.
But the Illinois Department of Public Health announced Monday itāll allow the area and other regions to move to Tier 2 even if they havenāt met the hospital capacity goal because the state is bringing in more health care workers who can work at hospitals, effectively increasing the number of sick people they can handle."
*Region 11 is Chicago proper.
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I mean, people should not be in charge of things, I think. Too dumb.
On the other hand, someone closed something there, so my region has no room to talk.
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I received vouchers provided by the government and issued out by the health insurance company for 15 FFp2 masks.
Until than I didnāt new that my preconditions were on the list.
Therefore it also looks like that I am on the vaccine list for April/May.
Otherwise Germany is hit pretty hard now. 
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Interestingly, all the comments are filled with their (local) friends saying āHOW?ā or saying they couldnāt find an appt, or āIām trying to get my Mom one- how did you manage to find one?ā (this is a 65+ year old trying to get one for their parent).
So my parents were apparently lucky, and their countyās vaccine distribution is a giant messā¦
I still canāt believe Texas is already onto normal people. My parents are over 65, but under 70, and have no pre-existing conditions.
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Here is some positive news. Though, like everyone else, I have no idea how everyoneās going to actually get appointments.
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I am finding it very strange how much chaos there seems to be in some of the states on the vaccine rollout. We were phase 1a only until this week (frontline health care workers, nursing home residents and staff, medical first responders) and as of last week, all nursing home residents have received their first dose. Starting this week they have started phase 1b, and have opened up appointments to those 75 and over. 1b contains many more categories than this but they are being methodical as to how they are scheduling, as I think supply is the bottleneck right now. They just opened the largest drive through vaccination site in the state and hope to be vaccinating 10k people per week within a few weeks just at that site alone. Phase 1b also contains front line essential workers, people and staff in congregate settings, people over the age of 65, and anyone over the age of 16 with certain comorbidities. Front line essential workers is especially broad and includes grocery store, postal, agriculture, manufacturing, pharmacy, transit, education, waste management, front line social services, etc. It is estimated 30% of the population falls within this group, so it will take a while. We get a news conference once a week about the status and ehat is changing for the next week.
Everything seems to be going well and in an orderly fashion. Obviously phone lines are clogged and appointments fill up, but they anticipate increased supply soon and encourage people to keep trying, and especially use the internet or app to schedule if possible. They talk about it on the broadcast news every night to help (i assume) less tech savvy people (like, seniors) There have been very few cases of jumping the line, as far as have been reported, and when there are errors in communication it seems much is being done to rectify it. And it does not seem as though doses are being wasted.
I will say though that it does really bum me out that as a (somewhat) young person with no serious health issues (that I know of) I probably wonāt be able to get vaccinated until likeā¦ summer, or fall. I understand of course, but it also feels really unfair, especially if people who donāt think itās a very big deal get to go before me (like, people who have been going out and seeing friends and basically living normal lives). So I have to keep living like this while these people get to do whatever they want. Especially especially as plenty of seemingly healthy people have gotten sick and died as well. It feels like rewarding bad behavior.
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There are a few reasons for the chaos but
- We had a president who could not care less, so nothing was done to help distribute vaccines to the states and help states organize a plan.
- Because anything not covered explicitly in the constitution is a state right, a completely federal response would likely have caused uproar in the state. Which means every state is doing this their own way, so there are at least 50 different approaches to distribution. But then many states left it up to the counties, so there are at least a bajillion different approaches. So no one knows what the hell is going on. Without even tying in shortages and lack of distribution.
Iām baffled how Chicago can say they will have vaccines for everyone, when high risk populations throughout the country will still not even have been reached by that date.
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Yes, I mean, I understand the states rights to implement however they wanted to, I just donāt see how they thought using strategies that would devolve into basically a free for all wouldnāt do just that. (Like, letting counties administer but then counties not requiring you to actually live in that county. Or opening appointments up to a huge group all at once, or not requiring an appointment. Or requiring an appointment but then running out (you should know how many doses you have available on that day at that site. Senior citizens should not be camping out in lines overnight to then be denied because they ran out. What?)) Obviously certain parties just donāt care (like, the president). But health departments plan and train for this kind of thing. At least, some do I guess?
I also donāt see how Chicago plans to vaccinate everyone by May, the vaccine distribution to the states is supposed to be proportional to population (although there should be a push to prioritize under served communities (like POC and poor communities) due to the much worse outcomes if they do contract it due to limited access to health care. But everyone?
ALTHOUGH, I also just read we are recieving a bonus shipment (off schedule?) of doses due to how smoothly it is going hereā¦ this is the first Iāve heard anything about tying success to volume. On the one hand, it feels a little like giving more money to successful schools and denying funds to failing schools (even though they really need them). On the other hand, if distribution is smooth and there is little waste, why not give.more to those who can effectively handle it? On the third (?) hand itās a relatively small drop in the bucket, so maybe it doesnāt matter. Maybe theyāll talk about it at the next news conference.
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I do think a case could be made that putting out a hot spot frees up substantial resources for shifting around medical personnel. So a smooth vaccine rollout, getting enough people vaccinated to lighten the load on the medical system, I could see it improving outcomes elsewhere, too. 
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Thatās true, I hadnāt thought about it that wayā¦
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No, they said vaccination of gen pop (Phase 2) is going to START tentatively in May. Late May. They wonāt be finished by May.
As I read further, I saw that they expect Phase 2 to last most of 2021. Ugh.
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I feel this so hard. People are going out and partying and gathering and here Iām like āOMG, when I have gotten both doses of the vaccine then I might go and get some routine healthcare that Iāve been putting off! And walk into a grocery store and do my own shopping!ā
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I canāt believe some states are doing news conferences. Or releasing any information at all, really. Iām haunting the websites of the department of heath in my state and my parentsā in hopes of gleaning some info. Mostly what I see is that there are no appointments.
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I just had my first alum call to see if the university can hook them up with a vaccine appointment. I didnāt think the calls would start this early, I had February 1st in the office pool.
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I can also see how a city might be prioritized over a rural area due to population density.
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Sorryā¦read that wrong.
Thatās still insanely far ahead of the projections here.
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Yeah, dense living conditions and public transit-heavy population likely puts us more at risk.
They say theyāre going to prioritize the south and west sides, which are the poorest and hardest hit and most likely to have essential workers and many people crowded into small apartments. As they should - but as a resident of the comparatively wealthy northside, Iām even further down the list than I think, probably.
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I expect Iāll be able to get mine through my institution before I possibly could through the Department of Health, but alumni wonāt be included.
My father is 75 and technically eligible now though heās healthy as a horse, but thereās no vaccine, and anyway heās refusing to get it before my mother, who is 74 1/2 with multiple comorbidities and so wonāt be eligible in her state until the general population or her birthday next fall, whichever comes first. Unless of course they change the rules again and/or I succeed in convincing her to use my address and get it here if there are ever any appointments since my state is doing 65 and over.
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Can you make the argument that by him getting the vaccine, he also helps protect her?
I got mine through my institution, but we arenāt sharing that info widely.
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