Island Senior: Getting the Vaccine, Be Patient, Be Kind

Screen Shot of Eligibility Confirmation - Peggy Sue McRae

“Island Senior” is a reg­u­lar col­umn on the San Juan Update writ­ten by Peg­gy Sue McRae.

By now you prob­a­bly know a few islanders who have got­ten their first COVID-19 vaccine.

Once Tier 1b opened up to those over 65, there was a rush to get the shot.

Because 5,000 or so coun­ty res­i­dents now qual­i­fy, the approx­i­mate 300 dos­es that became avail­able recent­ly were snapped up like free cook­ies at a garage sale.

Basic access to the inter­net is the best way to find out about get­ting a coro­n­avirus vac­cine. Fill­ing out a sim­ple online ques­tion­naire is how you know and con­firm that you are eli­gi­ble. That online tool can be found on the state’s “Find Your Phase” site.

If you are 65 or old­er, over 50 and liv­ing in an inter­gen­er­a­tional house­hold, over 50 and car­ing for a grand­child, you are in tier 1b.

Once you con­firm what tier you are in, you then need to print out or take a screen­shot of the approval ver­i­fi­ca­tion doc­u­ment­ing your eligibility.

At this time the demand for the vac­cine is far greater than the sup­ply. Here is the link for San Juan islanders to get an appoint­ment. Here is where being patient comes in. 

Chances are when you click on “Book This Ser­vice” you will get the mes­sage: “No avail­able times.” We are going to have to be patient. As more vac­cines become avail­able this sit­u­a­tion should improve.

We are request­ed not to call the coun­ty health depart­ment for infor­ma­tion or appoint­ments at this time due to lim­it­ed staff resources being entire­ly devot­ed to the oper­a­tion of the vac­cine clinics.

Here are reli­able sources offer­ing updat­ed information:

• San Juan Coun­ty COVID Vac­cine website
• San Juan Coun­ty Health and Com­mu­ni­ty Face­book Page

This whole process is heav­i­ly reliant on tech­nol­o­gy, which may be very chal­leng­ing for some of our elders. Here is where being kind comes in.

If you are read­ing this arti­cle on the San Juan Update or the Mullis Com­mu­ni­ty Senior Cen­ter Face­book page, you at least have access to a com­put­er. Do you know some­one who doesn’t have a com­put­er? Extend an act of kind­ness if you can and offer to help them go online to con­firm their eligibility. 

We are in this togeth­er. We all will be safer as more of us get the vac­cine. Be patient. Be kind. We will get through this. 

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