Appointment scheduled!

Yesterday the state opened up vaccinations to more people, and due to some medical conditions that I won't get into here, I qualified for an appointment.

Navigating the state's vaccine websites was a bit of a nightmare - their server capacity wasn't nearly up to the demand, and appointments were very hard to come by. But with some help from my wife I persevered for an hour or so and was able to secure an appointment for next week.

Despite being able to get an appointment I am very disappointed in Massachusetts and how the vaccination effort is going. Getting through the various websites was very difficult for me, and I am much more computer-savvy and patient than most people who currently qualify. The state had plenty of time to plan for the load that occurred yesterday and apparently they weren't able to get their act together. Our horrible governor attempted to pass the buck, but I think the blame falls squarely on him. He's been mismanaging the virus response for the better part of a year, and this is just one more failure in a long string.

It is a huge relief to have an appointment. Still, I know that this is just the beginning of the process, and my wife and kids have no end in sight. I look forward to the day when all four of us are vaccinated and life can begin to get back to normal, but that seems to be at best several months away still. My father has had his first shot, and my mom gets hers this coming week, so despite everything we are beginning to see a light at the end of the tunnel...

Meanwhile out there the virus is mutating and gaining resistances, so I hope these vaccinations will still be effective as the months and years go on. It seems likely that we'll all need boosters and so forth but hopefully this will at least slow the progress of the virus and give us some short-term protection.