Don’t Get Your Hopes Up

Sign Of The Times

I was originally planning to title this post “There Is No Vaccine.”  But I decided that would be uncharacteristically (and unnecessarily) pessimistic.  Why was I thinking that way?

Remember when we used to be able to go to concerts?  We would get in line at 6am or earlier for tickets to see Elvis, Springsteen or Taylor Swift (not me!) that went on sale at 10am, only to find out at 10:01 that they sold out online?  I’m afraid the vaccine is going to be something like that.  Oh, we’ll probably be able to get it eventually, but in the meantime, we can listen to our favorite music on Spotify.  In other words, it’s going to be a long wait.

The New York Times has a tool on their website that allows us to estimate when we might have a chance to get the vaccine.  Based on my age, location and lack of underlying conditions, my estimated place in line is 268.7 million out of 331 million in the country, 8.5 million out of 10.5 million in the state, and 885,900 out of 1,127,080 in the county.

There are plenty of people out there that need it more than me, and I’m happy for them to have priority.  Truthfully, I don’t like to be an “early adopter” on anything for pretty obvious reasons.  It’s just frustrating that it is going to be such a slow process for everyone.

I don’t have a lot of faith in our ability to distribute a vaccine efficiently anyway, and since the Powers That Be apparently forfeited a chance to order enough for everyone in the first installment, it sounds like it’s gonna be a while.  Since each person has to get 2 doses the initial 100 million doses will only vaccinate 50 million people.  Out of 330 million!  At this point the Pfizer vaccine is the only hope, and while the Moderna vaccine is evidently in the approval pipeline, no one seems to be saying when that will be approved.  The downside of having a surplus of vaccine is what?  We get to give it to countries that need it?

While we’re all waiting anxiously to be “saved” by a vaccine, for now I’m just telling myself that there isn’t one.  That way, when we finally do get one we can be pleasantly surprised.

Craters of the Moon National Monument and Preserve near Arco, Idaho

2 thoughts on “Don’t Get Your Hopes Up”

  1. I’m not sure what to think about the vaccine, the wait and whether it is a viable solution for everyone. Way too many unknowns for me. I just a soon be at the end of the line for now.

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