I remain convinced that my opportunity to get a COVID-19 vaccination in February rather than March was an administrative error. I was worried, up until the moment when I presented my ID and it matched a name on the list, that I would be sent home with a message to “come back next month.” But my name was there and I have now received my first dose of the Moderna vaccine.
It was, overall, a smooth and well-organized process. I got it at the Lee County “mass vaccination site” at the old airport terminal area in Fort Myers, just 20 minutes from me. I was expecting that it would be a drive-through process, but it wasn’t. I had to park my car and walk – a pretty long distance, probably over a quarter-mile of walking before all was said and done – to first check-in (which is where I was relieved to find my name on the list), then in a long line in a canopied area to complete the requisite paperwork, then into a large field tent to get the vaccination, then, finally, into another large canopied area to wait 15 minutes to see if the inoculation would make my head spin and spew pea soup. I was home 90 minutes after I left, with half the time being travel time.
But the process was not without a flaw. When I received the confirmation email it included a link to “pre-register”. I did exactly that, filling out the paperwork online. When I was finished I was given the option of printing the paperwork or getting a “QR code” that could be scanned at the vaccination site to bring up the paperwork. I opted for the high-tech QR code. I printed it out and brought it with me to the vaccination site. But when I presented the QR code to the staff they looked at me like I had two heads. They had no clue what to do with it. I had to complete the form again. Why, I asked, was I given a QR code if you can’t use it? The answer: “I don’t know.”
Word to the wise: print out the paperwork.
