The U.S. Fumbled Its Early Vaccine Rollout. Will the Biden Administration Put America Back on Track?

On a frigid morning in January, Trudy Ronnel settled into her favorite sofa chair at the Westminster Place senior-living community in Evanston, Ill., pulled down the neckline on her red blouse and braced herself for a shot she’d anticipated for almost a year. At 92 years old, with multiple medical conditions, she spent most of 2020 fearful of contracting the COVID-19 plague that ravaged the world outside her first-floor window. To protect herself, for the past few months she’d avoided Westminster’s communal rooms, which had provided a means to stay active and engaged but risked becoming a pathogenic petri dish. Whenever she left her room, she dutifully wore a surgical face mask and maintained the mandated 6-ft. distance. The most difficult change came in the fall, when visits from her son, daughter and five grandchildren were cut off. Living in relative isolation was not how Ronnel envisioned spending her golden years. Like millions of Americans, as soon as the first coronavirus vaccine was authorized, she began anxiously counting down to the day she’d receive her shot. As an elderly resident of a long-term-care facility, Ronnel is at higher risk of getting infected and experiencing serious symptoms, and thus belongs to one of the first priority groups to get vaccinated, along with health care workers. So, when a Walgreens pharmacist finally appeared in her doorway with the shot on Jan. 6, it came as a welcome sight. After getting the injection, Ronne...
Source: TIME: Health - Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Tags: Uncategorized COVID-19 feature Magazine Source Type: news