My thoughts on getting a COVID vaccine today. I’m of mixed feelings about this because, while vaccine!, strictly speaking, the eligibility of University faculty (as I understand them) are unclear. I’m also not particularly old, nor high-risk.

Meijer (and Kroger, and others) are vaccinating university faculty as educators. (Which I definitely am!) This fact has been posted on Twitter by others, and announced on a university mailing list. While I’d like to think of myself as a as-scrupulous-as-reasonable rule-follower, this is a murky area.

I never lied to get this. Also, remember – any type of medical/healthcare employer was vaccinating nearly everyone when vaccines were really scarce, even those capable of work at home or not doing patient facing care. Here’s part of my rationalization.

-The US has a somewhat inefficient allocation of vaccine supply to where it is needed. I booked this appointment with <= 24 not-sleeping hours notice. I cannot believe this keeps anyone who ought to be eligible from getting a vaccine. (The pharmacy still had same day availability when I got my vaccine.)

-I have the capacity/flexibility/ability to exchange my time/energy to get a vaccine when/where others can’t. Should I not use this to help address the inefficient allocation above?

-I have a responsibility to help keep the daycare safe that we participate in, I struggled with how I would feel if I were to get COVID at this point (knowing that I passed up a vaccine opportunity) and pass it onto anyone at the daycare.

I’m posting this note for a few reasons.

  • We need to remind people that vaccines help everyone! There is some social signaling and sociology Even if you don’t need it, it will help others by curtailing possible spread, and others may need some encouragement to get it.

  • By trying to understand the appointment landscape, I helped a number of people get the vaccine weeks earlier than they were originally scheduled.

  • If you, for any reason, want to get the vaccine. Realize that there is capacity in the system in some places.

  • And use this information to help others too.

  • If people want to know my thoughts on the current state of getting a vaccine in Indiana, I’m happy to share more from looking at appointment availability for an elementary teacher I work with. My sense is that appointments are reasonably highly available with <= 24 hours notice if you are willing to travel <= 100 miles.