Russ's Ravings: Vaccine Envy, Vaccine Shaming Needs To Go

Editor's note: The following is Patch Field Editor Russ Crespolini's, hopefully, weekly column. It is reflective of his opinion alone.

At the conclusion of 2020 we were all told of the light at the end of the long tunnel of coronavirus was here. The vaccines were being approved, facilities were being opened to administer that vaccine, and we were supposed to be headed to a better 2021.

What followed was a frustrating, maddening cluster which left far too many Garden State residents scrambling for an inoculation that might not be coming for a while.

The reason is very simple, there isn't enough supply to meet the demand.

Now, there are many, many rumors as to why this is the case:

• There weren't enough doses purchased
• The Defense Production Act wasn't being utilized properly
• Other vaccines were bogged down in approvals
• There were refrigeration issues
• Doses were being measured wrong and wasted

Any of them true? Maybe, depends on whom you talk to.

Everyday social media was rife with people who were scared and angry and looking for places to put blame. And who could blame them. We were opening up mega vaccine sites capable of giving thousands of vaccine doses daily and only administering a few hundred.

Then, after getting word of a new plan coming from the Biden Administration, Gov. Phil Murphy extended vaccine eligibility to people over 65 and people with certain medical conditions 16-64.

And of those conditions was that smokers were going to be vaccinated before teachers. And that did not go over well.

From official condemnation from the unions, to the explosion from the rank and file on the front lines in the classroom it was an upwelling of vitriol and shaming that left its mark. People were being told they were selfish for taking shots away from teachers. That they were killing the more at risk elderly and that they should be donating their appointments.

Because the system for registering for the vaccinations is incomplete and fractured and lacking a cohesive strategy. I signed up for the COVID-19 vaccination system run by the state on Christmas Eve. Guess what? It didn't matter because individual sites run by healthcare partners operate differently. So I had to register with Atlantic Health where I live in Morris County and I happened to be lucky enough to be at the computer the instant the appointment slot email came in.

If you would like to hear about how I got an appointment and what that experience was like I detailed it here.

But I was lucky where the vast majority are not. And that anger has turned outward to smokers, to overweight people, to people who they believe had a "choice" and should not get vaccinated first.

That thinking, in many ways, is faulty. A teacher with any of those risk factors would qualify over a younger, healthier one who would not. And the purpose of this mandate, which follows the CDC guidelines, is so that hospitals are not overwhelmed with very sick people.

The fact of the matter is there is no one, really, to blame. There are contributing factors, yes, but there is no payoff in being envious of others for getting a vaccine or shaming them for not giving up their place in line.

This type of behavior, this type of rhetoric, this type of uncivil discourse needs to be left back in 2020. It will not, and should not, be tolerated in 2021.

Russ Crespolini is a Field Editor for Patch Media, adjunct professor and college newspaper advisor. His columns have won awards from the National Newspaper Association and the New Jersey Press Association.

He writes them in hopes of connecting with readers and engaging with them. And because it is cheaper than therapy. He can be reached at russ.crespolini@patch.com