The Vaccine as the Pressing Social Justice Issue of Our Time

 I didn't have a chance to post yesterday because I was distracted by the news that I had become eligible to get a vaccine.  In future years, will we remember which disease I'm getting vaccinated against?  Of course it's COVID-19, and I'm hoping we all get vaccinated enough so that the new variant in Brazil doesn't come roaring in to undo all the gains we've made in this year of lock downs and masks and social distancing.

I didn't take as long a walk as I might have because I wanted to be ready to snag an appointment when Publix released the next round of appointments at 7 a.m.--which was also another reason why I didn't write.  The page refreshes every 60 seconds.  At some point, the side of the page with the make an appointment button lights up and stays lit up, but I didn't know that when I first logged on.  I thought I'd have 5 seconds to hit the button before someone else got the appointment.  I thought it was that kind of competition.  So I would switch to a different browser window, but then switch back after 45 seconds.  I did this for about 10 minutes.

It became clear to me that I needed to try to get an appointment later, when I got to work, where I have 2 screens.  I went about getting ready for my day.  When I returned from my shower, I saw that the make an appointment side of the screen had lit up and stayed lit up.  I was taking no chances.  I clicked.

I took the first appointment offered:  9:40 on Thursday, March 25.  I typed in all the information; it couldn't have been much easier, but I do realize it's easy for me because I have a computer and I have familiarity with this way of filling out forms and I have home internet access.

At the end, the form asked if I wanted to make another appointment.  My spouse is also eligible, so I clicked on yes, and made an appointment for him.  The first appointment offered was when he teaches, so I asked for a different time.  I was warned I might lose any and all appointments, but I clicked on the change button anyway.  It gave me 6 time ranges to choose from, so I clicked on noon to 1:00 on March 25--and now my spouse has an appointment for noon on March 25.

I am aware of how many people don't have access to a vaccine appointment yet, but I do believe that in a few weeks, these appointments will open up to more of us, and I have hope that by May, anyone who wants a vaccine appointment will have one.

Now for the hard part:  convincing everyone that they want an appointment. We aren't going to get to herd immunity if just 50% of us are vaccinated.  

And then there's the other hard part, the even harder part:  figuring out how to get the rest of the world vaccinated too.  But here, too, I have hope.  We've done it before.  We can do it again.

In the past week, we've had 2 mass shootings, which will grab our attention, and perhaps rightly so.  But vaccine distribution is one of the pressing social justice issues of our time, and failure to get it right will kill far more of us, and more of those dead will be the poor, the marginalized, the outcast, the ones on the lower rungs of the social ladder.

God calls us to look out for them, and getting vaccines into more arms will help protect us all.