How to get a Covid-19 shot earlier than you would otherwise

There is a new option at the mass vaccination sites. To encourage eligible individuals age 75+ to visit the large mass vaccination sites, they may bring with them a caregiver, neighbor or family member who can also receive the vaccine. An appointment for each person is required, and may be scheduled for the same or adjacent times. For those who have trouble accessing the online appointment system, the 2-1-1 call center is available to assist for both the caregiver and the 75+ individual appointments.

This offer is good for
Natick
Dartmouth
Fenway Park
Foxborough
Springfield
Danvers

Someone is going to ask you to listen to the Dead in the car on the way to get the shot.

I'd rather wait until its my turn to be honest.

If your mother is on chemo meds she should speak to her prescribing physician about whether that conflicts with getting vaccinated first.

2 shots a few weeks apart, not dozens.

One barrier to reaching the 75+ population: transportation
Another barrier: needing someone to walk in with them
Another barrier: a lot of vaccine ends up at mass vaccination sites because they have the facilities to store it longer and go through enough for the 975+ minimum shipments of Pfizer, but see barrier #1

Solution: vaccinate the people driving them to the big sites. Makes it easier to find a ride. Makes it easier to get them into the door with assistance, and the big sites have enough vaccine to do it.

You can think of a dozen ways to abuse the policy, sure. But the barriers for older adults using these sites are slowing up the entire process of vaccinating everyone. There is a certain cost-benefit analysis here that favors doing this.

I honestly can't think of any way this will be abused.

Some young and healthy people might end up getting shots now as opposed to April but I hardly see that as abuse. Everyone is going to need to be vaccinated. It's not as if it's "wasted" on them.

And the only way someone under 75 will get the shot is if they show up with someone 75+. So if this gets more elderly vaccinated, that's a net win.

What if their barrier isn't transportation, but rather hesitancy? What if having a younger family member willing to go with them and receive the same shot is what gets them to show up?

If we're going to (foolishly) wait until we think we've vaccinated all of the 75+ year olds before we start moving onto the next sub-phase, we better find ways to get there rest of the 75+ crowd to get vaccinated or we will still be in Phase 2 Step 1 next year!

The problem is still supply - and the solution to that problem is at hand.

And when the problem is supply, you simply cannot just say "hey everyone line up", because those most likely to catch and spread disease due to high exposure, and those most likely to die or be hospitalized will be pushed out by people without such needs.

Things are speeding up. Its only February and the real grownups have only been running the response and thwacking the supply chain for three weeks.

The dilemma is either (a) drop the excessive bureaucracy to have as many people vaccinated as possible, but run out of the vaccine at a much faster clip, or (b) put extreme controls on who gets the vaccine to prevent line-jumpers, which saves the number of vaccines but increases the risk of wasting unused doses.

It'll be a moot point once millions more doses arrive, but better to do (a) and run the risk of running out than (b) and lose critical doses that could help others.

The people who have been taking them to their appointments, and/or the spouses and adult children they live with who are younger will get their vaccines at the same time.

I know a lot of elders who are eligible for vaccine who have not yet gotten theirs because their spouse isn't eligible yet. This way, the older spouse doesn't wait and the household gets their shots.

That's a possibility, and even more reason to continue to maintain your own personal safety at all times.

But for those who transportation is a barrier to them getting vaccinated, their only other choice would be transportation by someone else, including complete strangers from a taxi, livery or ride share service.

I don't recall seeing "75+ unless you're a veteran in which case it's 55+" on the state website.

.... listings of people and services willing to pay seniors to pose as a caretaker and take them to a mass vaccination site so they can get the vaccine.