At the moment it’s hard to know which is harder: winning the $1.73 billion Powerball jackpot—which some fortunate soul in Kern County reportedly did Wednesday—, or securing a successful appointment for the latest COVID-19 vaccine booster.
The odds of winning that healthy wad of cash is about 1 in 290 million.
The odds of securing an appointment with your health care provider or not having it cancelled because there’s not enough vaccine to go around, seems double that.
When the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced in September that the updated version of the vaccine was available to everyone over the age of 5 years, they urged everyone that was eligible for the shot to get one.
The prompting, if you remember, came at a time when there was a nationwide uptick in cases, hospitalizations and deaths related to the virus.
But that urgency was hardly met by the booster’s rollout.
In the first week of the vaccine’s availability it would be reasonable to encounter delays in getting the vaccine supply distributed across the country. We experienced that in previous years with prior updated boosters. Usually the wrinkles were worked out by the second week.
But nearly a month later, securing a COVID-19 booster isn’t much easier than it was a few weeks ago. Who’s to blame?
It ain’t the government. Not this time.
Since the emergency protocols for COVID 19 were lifted at the beginning of summer, the process was handed over to the private sector. Whereas before May the federal government was responsible for acquiring and distributing the vaccines now it’s individual healthcare providers.
What’s even more troubling is that previously anyone who wanted a booster could walk into a pharmacy, clinic or hospital and get one. Free.
Now that insurance providers have taken over there is a chance you’ll have to pay up to a couple hundred bucks out of pocket if you go out of network. If you are insured you may get reimbursed. If you’re not insured there’s a chance you can get the shot free through the federal government’s Bridge Access Program if you qualify.
While the vaccine’s rollout may not be on schedule, it looks like our rush to normal–where it’s costly to get sick and too costly to prevent it or recover—is right on time.
