How Long Will I Have to Wait?

The CDC Director has adopted the following recommendations from the ACIP (Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices) in December 2020 with regards to the order in which people should be offered the COVID vaccine:

• Phase 1a: Healthcare personnel and long-term care facility residents
• Phase 1b: People aged 75 years and older and non–health care frontline essential workers
• Phase 1c: People aged 65–74 years, people aged 16–64 years with high-risk medical conditions, and essential workers not included in Phase 1b

It is difficult for me to argue with the groups mentioned here. The question is not whether someone like me, who wants to be vaccinated and has an underlying condition, will get a COVID vaccine, but rather WHEN we will be vaccinated.

The current administration promised 20 million vaccines would be given by the end of 2020. The actual number given was closer to 4 million. To me, it does not matter whether the blame falls on our current administration or the states. The critical concern is that COVID numbers continue to spike, distribution of the COVID vaccine continues to stall, and people like me who are high risk are still playing the waiting game.

I have always been a self-advocate with regards to my health. I administer two vest therapies, three aerosol treatments and two sinus treatments every day. I take thirty enzymes, multiple supplements and vitamins and antibiotics every day, too. My daily routine includes stretching, working out and running just so I can breathe like everyone else. I do everything in my power to protect myself and that includes practicing social distancing, wearing a mask around everyone outside of my immediate family and washing my hands religiously. Still, I want to double-down on being protected and that means receiving the COVID vaccine sooner rather than later.

Back in March, the states began requiring those with serious underlying conditions to shelter in place. Among those with serious underlying conditions are those of us with chronic lung disease. When my Governor Brian Kemp signed an executive order asking people like me to shelter in place, my expectation was that when a vaccine was available that we would be on the priority list to receive it. We were after all the ones specifically identified as being high risk.

On Wednesday, December 30, 2020, Kemp announced that Georgia would expand COVID-19 vaccinations to adults ages 65 and older while already giving them to law enforcement officers, firefighters, those in assisted living facilities and first responders across the state. While all these people are deserving of receiving COVID vaccines, where are those with high-risk medical conditions between the ages of 16 and 64 who are supposed to be part of phase 1c?

Georgia is not the only state that is not yet planning to vaccinate those with underlying conditions under the age of 65. In Florida, those under 65 who are high-risk are still waiting. When will younger people with underlying conditions get COVID vaccine? | WPEC (cbs12.com). In South Carolina, a majority of the vaccines are still on ice. DHEC explains why 63% of COVID vaccines in SC are still on ice (wistv.com) In Ohio, distribution of the vaccine is behind its regional neighbors. Why is Ohio behind other states on administering COVID vaccines? (cincinnati.com)

One hundred and thirty million people in the United States (40% of the population) have some sort of chronic illness. However, even young, healthy politicians are beginning to receive the vaccine in order to show their constituents that they can trust it. Where are people in the high-risk category on the priority list? My best analogy is watching millionaires and billionaires receive stimulus checks while families just trying to keep their power on are still waiting for their payments.

I understand that I have to be patient. I feel like I have been for 10 months. My governor asked me to shelter in place and I have for almost a year. In that time, I have stopped going to the gym and instead have worked out at home. I have not dined in a restaurant and instead go the curbside or delivery route. I have watched sporting events on TV instead of going in person. I have worn a facemask around everyone I know despite having a disease that makes it difficult to breathe while wearing one. Despite doing all these things, I am still relying on receiving the COVID vaccine. It has been the light at the end of end of tunnel. But I feel like the last kid picked for teams in gym class.

This is not the first time I have had to wait for something to protect my health. I was 46 before I was able to take my first CFTR modulator Trikafta to improve my lungs tremendously. Trikafta was the fourth major CFTR modulator and arrived seven years after the initial breakthrough drug Kalydeco which did not work with my genotype.

Are we supposed to continue “sheltering in place” while everyone else gets vaccinated or do we find a way to advocate for those with underlying conditions? I will do what my parents taught me long ago and that is to be a champion for my cause. I believe that those of us with chronic disease deserve to get the vaccine as soon as possible so that we have a better opportunity to live our lives.

I will continue to wear facemasks, practice social distancing and practice good hygiene, but in the days of COVID where new more contagious strands are now being discovered, that may not be enough. I hear all the time that people get COVID and they have no idea how. They have been sheltering in place. They have been wearing masks. They have been washing their hands. It just “happened.”

Those of us with underlying health conditions like cystic fibrosis cannot afford for it to just happen. We cannot afford to further damage our mucus-clogged lungs. We cannot afford to wait to receive the COVID vaccine.

How long will we have to wait?

Live your dreams and love your life.
Andy