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Getting Vaccinated
Jan. 9th, 2021 08:51 pmSo, I finally got my mom signed up to be vaccinated. Her appointment isn't until January 21st. Indiana is doing an absolutely ridiculous job administering these. I signed her up with the County Health Department, and their schedule is 8am to 5pm, five days a week, with an hour break for lunch. They administer shots one every ten minutes. Despite close to a year of being told that this is a dire emergency, one that justifies intense government intrusion into private lives, our 'frontline heroes' in the health bureaucracy move at their regular, glacial pace when administering remedies.
In 1947, NYC vaccinated over 6 million people in a month for smallpox. As they note, we've made such a farrago of requirements, records keeping, and the like that'd be impossible today.
I remember being vaccinated for smallpox in either 1967 or 1968, a few weeks before school started, as part of a mass effort. The health department set up an outdoor station in front of the elementary school, right under the flagpole (so that getting bravely vaccinated conflated with patriotism in my mind - I've no idea whether that was intended - if so, it was well and wisely done), and you joined the end of the line and marched on past the desk pretty rapidly. They did several hundred that day, at least. IIRC, it only took a minute, if that, to get stabbed with the scratcher and your name checked off on the list. I had to stand in line for some time, but some of my friends were there, so it was interesting. My grandmother took me there, IIRC.
I got a serious lecture about not touching the bandaid, serious enough that I recall being afraid of accidentally touching it as I slept. I think I ended up wearing long sleeve shirts that week, just to be sure. It got changed once a day, the scab examined, then re-bandaided with some gauze over the top. After about a week or so, the scab fell off, and got ceremonially tossed into the furnace, where all of the bandaids had preceded it. A big enough deal was made of that such that it still sticks with me. I still have vague feelings of patriotically protecting America when I get a flu shot.
In 1947, NYC vaccinated over 6 million people in a month for smallpox. As they note, we've made such a farrago of requirements, records keeping, and the like that'd be impossible today.
I remember being vaccinated for smallpox in either 1967 or 1968, a few weeks before school started, as part of a mass effort. The health department set up an outdoor station in front of the elementary school, right under the flagpole (so that getting bravely vaccinated conflated with patriotism in my mind - I've no idea whether that was intended - if so, it was well and wisely done), and you joined the end of the line and marched on past the desk pretty rapidly. They did several hundred that day, at least. IIRC, it only took a minute, if that, to get stabbed with the scratcher and your name checked off on the list. I had to stand in line for some time, but some of my friends were there, so it was interesting. My grandmother took me there, IIRC.
I got a serious lecture about not touching the bandaid, serious enough that I recall being afraid of accidentally touching it as I slept. I think I ended up wearing long sleeve shirts that week, just to be sure. It got changed once a day, the scab examined, then re-bandaided with some gauze over the top. After about a week or so, the scab fell off, and got ceremonially tossed into the furnace, where all of the bandaids had preceded it. A big enough deal was made of that such that it still sticks with me. I still have vague feelings of patriotically protecting America when I get a flu shot.
