States are making new groups eligible for Covid-19 vaccines at a faster but uneven pace, creating discrepancies that cause confusion and encourage some people to walk into places with more lenient policies.
On Wednesday, New Yorkers 60 years or older were eligible for vaccination. In neighboring New Jersey, residents age 65 and older are eligible, while in Connecticut, the cut-off age is 55. Pittsburgh hotel employees are not eligible, but some of their co-workers are eligible. they are because they smoke. And in Michigan, restaurant and bar workers are subject to different rules depending on the county where they live.
SHARE YOUR THOUGHTS
Should vaccines be given priority by age or other factors? Join the following conversation.
Aimée Coldren, a 37-year-old waitress in Detroit, said she has received two doses of vaccine. Her friend Casey Miller, 34, a bartender at a conversation venue in nearby Ann Arbor, is not yet eligible.
“Why are things different from county to county?” Said Mr. Miller.
Vaccination rates across the U.S. are rising. President Biden said earlier this month that there would be enough vaccines for all American adults by the end of May. So far, more than 95 million shots have been fired in the United States, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the rate has risen to about 2.2 million shots a day.
For now, however, states and cities set very different rules for who can opt for a shot and when. Some places, including Chicago and Florida, are applying residency requirements to reserve shots for people most vulnerable to severe cases of Covid-19. Others, including Ohio, vaccinate anyone claiming eligibility, even non-residents. According to state data, about 45,000 non-residents have been vaccinated there.
In Kentucky, hospitality workers are included among the groups of people currently eligible for the vaccine. But many Louisville hotel workers, for example, live on the other side of the Ohio River in Indiana, which has not opened vaccines to hotel workers and is focused on inoculating people 50 and older, according to the Indiana Department of Health.
“It’s pretty clear in an unclear way,” said Hank Phillips, president and CEO of the Kentucky Travel Industry Association. “It’s the weird Covid reality.”
A vaccination clinic set up by Norton Healthcare at Bates Memorial Baptist Church in Louisville, Ky.
Photo:
Jon Cherry / Getty Images
The Norton Healthcare hospital system has established vaccination clinics in Louisville churches that attract attendees from both Indiana and Kentucky, said Chief Medical Officer Steven Hester. “Our goal is to vaccinate people,” he said.
In Indiana, hospital operator Baptist Health Floyd has intensified credential checks for essential workers seeking vaccines.
“We were trusting people who were health workers or first aiders, but clearly not,” said Brian Cox, director of hospital operations at Baptist Health Floyd.
Some cities and states, such as Connecticut and Maine, have removed categories that said they cannot police in favor of an age-based system. Long Beach, California, has recently made vaccines available to any resident 65 years of age or older without prior appointment.
City spokeswoman Jennifer Rice Epstein said some people outside the city had taken advantage of an earlier system to book appointments online. “When it happens, we put these people aside,” he said.
Some people come together to find extra doses. A group of Los Angeles Covid Vaccine Hunters on Facebook has over 7,000 members. Another group in Maryland has over 63,000 members.
Web browser alerts and tools can help you book an appointment with the Covid-19 vaccine. Joanna Stern of WSJ met with Kris Slevens, an IT man who has booked over 300 appointments for New Jersey seniors, to learn the best tricks for competing in the Hunger Games. Photographic illustration: Emil Lendof for the Wall Street Journal
Phil Cohen, a 32-year-old literary executive in Brooklyn, said he has helped about 30 people find dating. “I’m telling people that you might have to go to Coney Island with advance notice or that you might have to travel to the Bronx tomorrow,” he said. “It’s definitely not for people who have a rigid schedule.”
Lisa Martin, 43, administrator of a Chicago Vaccine Hunters group on Facebook, said she drove five hours south from her home to lower Jackson County with her entire family after dialing online dating. While some Illinois counties vaccinate only residents, Jackson allowed outsiders.
“Everyone deserves a vaccine,” Ms. Martin said. “No one deserves it more than anyone.”
Lysandra Bailen, a 40-year-old real estate agent in Henderson, Nevada who is not yet eligible for vaccination in her state, said as a single mother, she was worried about what would happen to her two children if they were hospitalized. . A friend’s husband recently died of Covid-19 at the age of 38, he said, leaving behind his wife and children.
“I couldn’t do that to my kids,” Ms. Bailen said.
He said he spent every free minute for weeks touring online vaccine groups and designing vaccination sites. When she arrived at a mass vaccination site an hour before it recently opened, 30 people were in front of her on a waiting list to distribute additional doses at the end of the day.
He returned at three in the afternoon and received a vaccine. “It was just a combination of my persistence and luck,” he said.
Write to Julie Wernau to [email protected] and Talal Ansari to [email protected]
Copyright © 2020 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All rights reserved. 87990cbe856818d5eddac44c7b1cdeb8