By Bill Sniffin, publisher
By some kind of stroke of luck and good timing, my wife Nancy and I received our COVID-19 vaccinations today (Tuesday, Jan. 5, 2021). We got the Pfizer shot, administered by the nice folks at the Lander Medical Clinic.
Over a month ago, I called the clinic and asked when we could be considered for a shot? They did not know but said they would put us on a waiting list.
Then we got a call from the clinic saying that while they are giving shots to health care workers, sometimes there might be left over shots available. Would we make ourselves available on a moment’s notice? Yes, I said, we would.
Because we fit the age requirements and I had called early, when doses showed up, the staff at the clinic called us yesterday with good news. They said if we were available, could we show up today at a new clinic they were setting up? Yes, we would.
Nurse Randi George gave us the shot (with assistance from Billie Martinez) and said when she got hers two weeks ago, she felt a little tired the next day. She suggested we take it easy the next day. She also said that unofficially it appeared that the first shot will give you 50 percent immunity against the virus while the second shot pushes it to 95 percent.
The staff took all our vitals before and, afterward, had us rest for 15 minutes. Then they took our vitals again. We were given a card and also set up for the follow up shot in three weeks.
We are ecstatic.
The Lander Medical Clinic, according to CEO Ryan Hedges, has 3,100 patients over the age of 70 and they had been calling them setting up appointments. On this day they planned to give 75 shots. We felt very fortunate.
And yet despite us (and many others) now getting shots, there has been a glitch at some of the nursing homes in Fremont County. Because big national pharmacy chains were charged with this job, a lot of old folks in nursing homes still had not gotten their shots. I must admit this made me feel a little guilty but I did not hear about this until after I got my shot. Hedges said they could not give the shots to the nursing home residents because of the rules they are working under.
Coincidentally, my younger brother in Broomfield, CO, also got his shot today. His was a Moderna shot. He works part-time at a Thornton, CO golf course and the city were giving shots to all their employees. He never left his car as Thornton set up a drive-through operation.
As I write this Tuesday night, we are 12 hours into our shot experience. So far so good. It feels wonderful to have this protection.
Good luck to everyone out there in getting your shots. I can only hope that cities and towns around the state are being as efficient as our clinic in Lander was today.
