The World's Common Tater

Georgia just announced that anyone above the age of 16 will be eligible to get the vaccine starting tomorrow. My social media is full of friends and family being vaccinated in Kentucky. Meanwhile, here in Maryland, the “big” move forward for us was that starting yesterday people over the age of 60 are eligible. This coming Tuesday people of any age with underlying health conditions are finally eligible. Then it opens to 55 plus before finally, just in time for Biden’s May 1 deadline, late April everyone is available. We are moving a snail’s pace while also being told 70% of the people in the first phase have received a shot.

We are perilously close to more and more vaccines sitting on a shelf(I’ve read but not confirmed that Maryland already has 500,000 unused doses). We have a preregistration system here so there is no way to know if our mass vax sites have open appointments that aren’t filled because they can’t find the “right” people. I assume it’s possible since there was hand wringing in the Post today about people from other states and the “unqualified” getting spots when the called and got canceled slots. Would we rather those slots go unfilled? Isn’t the goal to vaccinate as many people as possible as fast as possible? Are we so worried about following the rules that we would rather vaccinate no one than vaccinate someone that the great Larry Hogan has not declared eligible? This is what happens when the government is in charge and the person in charge is addicted to power and TV. Nothing gets done so Hogan can avoid bad press. With the slow process he can brag about how he’s “protecting the vulnerable” and I’m sure in a few weeks suddenly release the 500,000 or more stored doses while claiming he had to fight the feds for them and now he’s a hero. Kind of like his big, fake photo op with the tests he bought from Korea that didn’t work.

Also, we are months into the vaccination process and his big announcement yesterday is that we are just now opening a mass vax site in our most populous county. My county will get one in mid-April. Another part of the process that has inched along.

It’s embarrassing that we are behind Mississippi in the process. Mississippi! Along with many other states. I could probably move back home to Kentucky, establish residency, and be eligible faster than I will be in Maryland.

Hogan is vey obviously already running for president. He takes every opportunity to go on TV an brag about how great he is. He has stopped governing Maryland and puts us all at risk of disease while he inches along in the process and no one on the media has called him out on it. Why isn’t he being held accountable? Where are the questions about the pace and the unused shots?

The timeline has reduced my anxiety about the vaccine. At least I know when I am eligible. Now I’m just mad that he is so bad at coordinating the process and seems to be getting a free pass from the media.