Thread by @WhitneyEpi

I’m tired

In December, I wrote in @zeynep’s newsletter, Insight, about vaccine prioritization. I used a well-publicized inequity among #HCWs as case study

Major point: first-come, first served systems put the most advantaged & least at-risk first in line
zeynep.substack.com/p/the-vaccine-…

2/ I’m kicking myself bc I let myself lose track of a shift in my state’s prioritization scheme. As of yesterday, all childcare workers and K-12 teachers in particular are eligible to get vaccinated...

https://twitter.com/NCHealthNews/status/1364652220776644613

3/ I’ve been trying to help the teachers at my kids’ daycare get vaccinated. Only one is 65 yo+. Several others are just shy of that, Black women in their early 60s or late 50s (amazing women who’ve cared for my children w intention & purpose the past 6 years)

4/ I managed to help the 65 yo staff member get a spot at a special Saturday @OrangeHealthNC POD community event a couple weeks ago. That was a joy! 🥳

5/ and @mollsdemarco helpfully informed me that another staff member *was* already eligible bc she’s caring for a sick relative in her home. I hadn’t realized that put her in phase 1. Hooray!

6/ but I knew that the Phase 1 eligible daycare teacher needed to get in ahead of the expansion to other educators: Eligibility and access are not the same thing

There’s not enough vaccine available for all the eligible teachers right at this moment...

https://twitter.com/nchealthnews/status/1364659607138934791

7/ I feel guilty. I missed the window. I thought I had more time to help her get vaccinated before eligibility expanded

8/ But I’m also angry. This older woman who doesn’t have a car or laptop, who’s been caring for young children in person day in and day out this past year, and caring for others in her family the rest of the time - she shouldn’t be pushed to the back of another line

9/ I realized I’d missed the change in eligibility bc a neighbor of mine had gotten herself a vaccine appointment yesterday, the first day of K12 eligibility. She’s a young White woman who’s been teaching remotely and also a wonderful, kind person

10/ And so I had mixed feelings. I was happy for her personally. She’d obeyed all the rules, followed tips to sign up on all the online portals... And got a spot. She drove to her weekday daytime vaccine appointment

11/ Meanwhile the staff at my kids’ daycare are still waiting. The phase 1 eligible teacher called around on her lunch break. No one had appts for her

Meanwhile, other state restrictions are being eased

https://twitter.com/NCHealthNews/status/1364654413462319108

12/ The @OrangeHealthNC has plans to go to daycare providers in our county and vaccinate them at work. I’m so grateful to them. But they can only work with the supply they are given by the state...

13/ And, in my opinion, they haven’t been given enough to meet community needs.

14/ The big health care system gets a lot of vaccine. By all accounts, they’ve set up a very efficient operation at their big vaccination site & they are vaccinating lots of people.

15/ But I also hear that the demographics are not the demographics of who is most at risk of infection and severe illness

16/ Most of the people getting vaccinated at the health care system site are those who can be at home, refreshing websites, who have their own cars and can drive to a vaccination site in the middle of the workday

17/ This is such a weird time. The sun is finally shining here. Case rates have dropped a lot after the Nov/Dec surge (but still higher than the most of 2020)

https://twitter.com/nchealthnews/status/1364653363716104192

18/ I know of more and more youngish, WFH White people getting vaccinated (through a variety of lawful means).

*And* I hear a narrative that Black and Brown people are just vaccine hesitant. But what I see onthe ground is how much the system is just serving them

19/ And as the most well-off feel safer and safer, I worry about the **essential** workers, like these daycare staff, the Amazon warehouse workers, all the in-person low-wage folks, who have been holding society together this past year

20/ if you’re lucky enough to be vaccinated and for your family to be vaccinated, don’t forget those who go to work every day who aren’t vaccinated. Don’t forget their sacrifices. These people deserve to be honored. They deserve better from us

Typo! ..”system is just NOT serving them”

context for NC’s policy shift: State legislature increasingly threatening school districts (like mine) that remain remote. The K12 teacher in my story will likely be teaching in-person soon. In response, the governor changed prioritization. But community outreach remains key