Process behind Vaccinating Local Residents
With the lack of vaccines in the commonwealth, people are frustrated with not being able to schedule a vaccine even if they fit the phase 1-A criteria.
On top of that, we know some people are traveling from out of town to receive their vaccine here, which adds to the frustration for many.
Andrew and Cristal Underwood are two of those people.
“You can’t always tell if you have a disability or if there’s something that impacts your health just by looking at the outside,” Cristal said.
She is 53 years old and her husband is 55. They may look healthy but really she has an autoimmune disorder, asthma, and is a thyroid cancer survivor. He has diabetes and asthma. Both want vaccinated because of their high risk conditions but are struggling to get through.
“You hear about people coming from out of state or other cities just to come here to get their vaccinations, and you kind of feel like, what about us,” Cristal said.
They aren't the only ones upset that people from other places are getting vaccines here in Erie so Erie News Now asked the experts.
“This vaccine is a federal resource,” County Executive Kathy Dahlkemper said. “This is coming from for free for everyone so there actually is no way that you can deny people as long as you’re a resident of the United States.”
She wants to see her county with vaccines in the arm but says it's not that easy.
“People from Erie County I know have gone to other states and other counties to get their vaccine and vice versa,” Dahlkemper said.
She said some patients from Ashtabula and Chautauqua counties actually travel to Erie all the time for their health care so there's no way to restrict them when it comes to the vaccine. State Representative Ryan Bizzarro said the most important thing is that people get vaccinated.
“I don’t think we should be discouraging anyone from getting their vaccination regardless of where they come from,” Bizzarro said. “Of course we should be taking Erie County residents as our top priority.”
Some of the local healthcare systems are prioritizing their local patients in the network. Speaking of which, we wanted to know how they determine who gets the vaccine first in phase 1-A? Dahlkemper assured it’s not alphabetical.
Each system is doing it a bit differently.
“Some of the vaccinators have prioritized people that are 75 and up,” Dahlkemper said. “Others have been fine with 65 and up but maybe they aren’t doing those who are under 65 with preexisting medical conditions yet.”
Which still leaves the Underwood couple, who are starting to feel a little hopeless....Dahlkemper said hopefully soon everyone in phase 1 a will have the opportunity to be vaccinated.