No Internet? No COVID Vaccine.

A nurse applies a COVID-19 vaccine at a vaccination site in Inglewood, California on Feb. 11, 2021 [AP/Marcio Jose Sanchez]

By Samantha Grasso

I got my first dose of the Moderna vaccine on Tuesday.

I’m 27 and a writer, not a frontline healthcare worker, but I qualified for an early rollout of the vaccine in Texas because my body mass index puts me at a higher risk if I get COVID. My partner, who is immunocompromised, also got vaccinated. Getting the actual shot wasn’t difficult – it was done “drive-thru” style and administered in the parking lot of my old high school football stadium. But booking my appointment was complicated and revealed a lot about why the vaccine rollout has been so fraught.

For two weeks, multiple times a day, I checked the online patient portal of an Austin, Texas, vaccine distributor, something that many essential workers don’t have the luxury of doing. I drove 11 miles to my vaccination site in the suburbs, which is inaccessible if you’re using Austin public transportation. The day before my vaccine appointment, I found out via text message that my appointment had been moved up by three hours, and I was able to change my schedule to accommodate this – a luxury many workers don’t have.

These examples point to a much wider problem with inequality, vaccine distribution and access. Last month, Dallas County found that residents in three of its highest-income zip codes had the highest vaccination rates. In nearby Tarrant County, where 30% of people are Hispanic, Hispanic people only made up 5% of those vaccinated. Houston also has clear racial and economic vaccination disparities. This problem is playing out across the country, and the world: In an analysis of vaccine rollout data from 16 states last month, Kaiser Health News found that Black people were getting vaccinated at lower rates than white people. And last month, the World Health Organization warned about severe vaccination inequalities between richer and poorer countries.

It’s clear our government has again failed to protect our most vulnerable people through this vaccine rollout. I’m lucky to have gotten the vaccine as early as I did, and given what we know about how COVID affects fat people, I needed it. But still, I can’t help but feel guilty for possibly taking a “spot” from someone who hasn’t had the time to fight their way onto a waitlist. The Biden administration must step in to rectify these inequities as the rollout continues – we’ve already seen what will happen if they don’t.

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