At long last, the Covid-19 vaccine is ready to be distributed to the people of the United States. However, with state governments taking the brunt of this initiative and handling much of the vaccination rollout, executing this task has become more complicated. Not everyone can get the vaccine right away, so each state has created a multi-step process to ensure that those who are at a high risk of getting the virus can get vaccinated first. This, of course, presents even more questions. Will the upper class be able to take advantage of the vaccination system? How will New York State’s vaccination process affect our communities? What should one do or avoid when going through the process? How will current inequities impact the way the system is implemented and who will benefit the most from it?

Following New York State’s January 11th decision to make teachers eligible for vaccinations, several Riverdale teachers have received the vaccine. Some teachers have said that the after-effects of taking the vaccine can vary from none at all to flu-like symptoms. When asked about her response to the vaccine, Upper and Middle School history teacher Dr. Elizabeth Pillsbury said, “I had a headache and experienced severe fatigue and fever.” Many teachers like Upper School English teacher Ms. Julie Fischer recommend that you “don’t take any kind of anti-inflammatory pill beforehand. Taking anti-inflammatories could lessen your immune response, and you want a full-on immune response. Also, make sure to dress warmly and double mask.” 

The vaccine has only been deemed safe for those over 18 years old, so when will it be safe for children to be vaccinated? According to Riverdale’s former school nurse, Nurse Patricia Lide, “young people probably won’t be vaccinated by the beginning of the 2021 school year because the vaccines have not had clinical trials in the pediatric population yet. You need at least six months of trials before it can be deemed safe for those under 18.”  

Teachers have also expressed that the registration process is quite complicated. As Ms. Fischer said, “I spent three and a half hours trying to get an appointment. I would be able to get an appointment but then the site would glitch and I’d have to find another one.” However, for some, the opposite can be said about the actual vaccination process: “Once you got inside, everything was very streamlined. You got in, you waited, you went to the next nurse administering the vaccine, and once you got the vaccine you could leave,” explained Ms. Lexie Frare, Upper and Middle School drama teacher.

Due to the complexity of the vaccination process, there are many concerns regarding its accessibility and equitability. “I think that there are a lot of people who are eligible [to get vaccinated] right now who don’t have access to technology, don’t have the skills to use it, or don’t speak English as a first language, and they’re going to have difficulty figuring things out.” Dr. Pillsbury said. Furthermore, because of the way the system is designed, it is very easy for the upper class to use their money and power to get vaccinated or tested before they are supposed to. Wealth-related inequities are evident with testing accessibility within schools. According to Nurse Lide, “Riverdale has a tremendous amount of testing going on because we have the money to invest in it. In public schools, many of them in poorer areas, testing is harder to come by because the money is just not there.” 

With the recent availability of vaccines, the upper class has already started to cheat the system, using their vast connections to get themselves and their friends vaccinated. In Florida, nursing home board members traveled in droves to West Palm Beach to get vaccines that were meant for their residents. In Philadelphia, a 22-year-old CEO stole vaccine viles and gave them out to his friends. In Los Angeles, concierge doctors had to deal with frantic rich clients who were offering hefty donations in return for the vaccine. In Canada, a wealthy couple broke quarantine rules to travel to a remote Indigenous reservation to get vaccines meant for Indigenous elders. 

There is also inequity between wealthy and developing countries that has become increasingly apparent throughout the course of the pandemic. Wealthy countries have reserved 51% of the 7.5 billion vaccine doses and are seeking to secure future vaccines, which leaves developing countries uncertain about when they will have sufficient vaccine access. According to estimates from the Duke Global Health Innovation Center in Durham, North Carolina, people in developing nations are not expected to get sufficient vaccine access until 2023 or 2024. 

What should we do about these blatant inequalities? According to Nurse Lide, the answer is not as straightforward as one would like. As she explained, “the World Health Organization looks at worldwide issues like the pandemic, vaccine distribution, and inequities in healthcare, and they make certain goals to fix these issues and strive towards them, but that’s one way to look at what’s going on worldwide.” As vaccinations continue within Riverdale and the country at large, many of these currently ambiguous aspects of the vaccine process will hopefully begin to have clearer answers.