I Had Forgotten One Vital Detail.
It was the day of Shane’s first vaccine shot. My friend, who also has a 17-year-old, called. We’re both anxiously trying to get the youngest members of our families vaccinated.
“What vaccine is Shane getting?” she asked.
“I don’t care,” I said. “Whatever they’ll give him!” She was waiting for Pfizer which – while my preferred choice – seemed silly to me.
But I had forgotten one vital detail.
She reminded me: “Pfizer is the only FDA-approved drug for their age group.”
Oh, riiiiight.
After half a dozen unanswered phone calls and website inspections galore, I discovered that Shane was, indeed, scheduled to get the Moderna vaccine that day. Legally, he can’t get that shot so, after weeks of waiting, we had to skip his appointment.
So I went back to Square One.
Fortunately, someone provided me with a phone number to make an appointment with another vaccination site.
My friend called. “They could only make an appointment for one day out,” she said. “And the woman I spoke with said they only have Johnson & Johnson today and tomorrow. In fact, it sounded to me like she wasn’t sure they’d ever get Pfizer again!”
She made an appointment anyway.
I decided not to call. I scoured the internet instead for appointments at places like CVS, where they tell you which vaccine you’re getting (if you’re lucky enough to get an appointment).
I wasn’t.
Then another friend texted me: “My friend got her shot today and she got Pfizer!” she said. It was the same vaccination site that maybe wasn’t ever getting Pfizer again.
Huh?
My friend called back. “This time I got someone who said they can’t possibly know in advance what the vaccine will be,” she said. “And she said she didn’t even know what they were using today!”
This seemed unlikely. But if someone had gotten Pfizer today, and someone else had said they had no idea about the brand, maybe I would get some kind of reassuring response. So I called, too.
“Sure!” said the man on the other end of the phone. “We have Pfizer! But we’re not scheduling anyone until next week.”
“And you know it will be Pfizer next week?” I asked. “Because my son is 17 and he can only get Pfizer.”
“Yes,” he said. “It will be Pfizer.” He pronounced it “Sizer,” which concerned me. But I made an appointment for Shane for next week. I have zero faith that it will be Pfizer.
My friend, encouraged that I got a “definitely Pfizer” answer, called again.
“We have no way to tell what brand it is,” this phone respondent told her. “We never know until the day of the appointment.”
“I’m going to the new clinic,” she said. “It’s an hour away, but they have walk-ins!”
My dad was driving right by – an hour away – so I asked him to stop in and see the clinic. He found absurdly long lines and was told that all the “walk-ins” were gone first thing in the morning. The next day, the “walk-in” clinic was in the news because the walk-ins were gone and people had waited seven hours in line for their “appointments.”
The next day, my friend’s 17-year-old son went to the “not guaranteed” site and got Pfizer.
We went to various CVS sites hoping for “leftovers” at the end of the day. No luck.
So Shane will wait until next week for a shot. It is possible – but not probable – that it will be Pfizer.
Our only alternative now is … wait. And hope. Again.