At some point, I started becoming aware of people getting a COVID-19 vaccine that I didn’t think truly qualified yet. While I’m excited about the prospect of getting vaccinated and will schedule an appointment as soon as I’m eligible, my state set up different tiers of eligibility to ensure that those most at risk get the doses first.
While I think I’m “essential,” as I’m me, and, therefore, value my life, I realize that in the big picture of things, I’m not. Additionally, I have less risk than many: I can isolate, no longer work in a nursing home, and I’m under 50. I’m no more “deserving” of a vaccine than anyone else and less than some.
In my state, we have an online system to check your eligibility. Just out of curiosity–with no intent to schedule an appointment– my husband ran various scenarios through the system. He inputted a wide range of preexisting conditions and situations into the system. The ONLY thing that would make the system tell him that he was eligible was either being over 65 or being a healthcare worker — and that was recent.
But he also found that he could quickly have scheduled an appointment at a local grocer pharmacy simply by checking a box on their appointment scheduler saying “I’m eligible,” with no other confirmation.
Recently, one of the new qualifiers is living in a “multigenerational household.”
Please note, people who are scheduling your vaccine based on this qualifier: a “multigenerational household” does not include you, your spouse, and your child (unless, perhaps, your child has a developmental disability.) Two generations do not a multigenerational household make!.
A multigenerational household is a household consisting of three or more generations.
The intention of adding multigenerational households as a vaccine qualifier was to protect those living with and caring for both children and parents and large extended families who run more risk of infecting each other.
Your small, nuclear family is NOT a multigenerational household. If you’re using that to qualify for a vaccine, please consider that, perhaps, you’re taking it away from someone else who needs it more.
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