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Glendale
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2021-03-16
Finally got my shot
I'd been trying to get a COVID vaccination appointment on the State of Arizona's website since late January. Finally, on the evening of Monday, March 15, I found a couple of slots open on the following evening at the State mass vaccination site at the Arizona Cardinals Stadium. It was about a 35-mile trip, and my wife drove me out there. Once we got to the site, everything went really smoothly and the staff were very pleasant. I got my first Pfizer dose and an appointment for April 6 for the second. It was nice to see the ASU banner at the site. Altogether, the travel time and the process on site took about an hour and forty-five minutes. I feel immensely relieved. -
2021-01-15
Getting Vaccinated at State Fairgrounds
As the vaccines were getting rolled out in Arizona, we were excited to learn that Arizona State University faculty fit into category 1B, as teachers. When the Arizona Patient Portal opened for 1B appointments on January 11 we dropped by the site at lunchtime, worried that we'd missed our opportunity. As luck would have it there were appointments available on January 15 at State Far Stadium in the wee hours of the morning. We were surprised as we'd heard the rollout of the site had met with difficulties earlier in the morning; we chose the a time just after midnight on the morning of the 15th, rather than at 4am (which seemed just too awkward.) On the 15th, we were antsy and hoped that the wait would not be too long; we decided to leave a bit early for the stadium, which is an hour drive from our home. As we arrived, we saw the shining portable lights of the vaccination center, just south of the stadium, in a parking lot. We navigated to the entrance and were delighted that nobody appeared to be waiting. Volunteers directed us through an elaborate maze of lanes, and traffic cones. (Many of my friends, in fact, served as volunteers, partly out of civic duty and partly to get the vaccine.) We showed one registrar our appointment slips (from the state website), and he wrote our appointment numbers on the window of my car (in either sharpie or wax pencil). We briefly waited in another line, as two registrars sitting under portable heaters that are so common on chilly winter nights in Arizona (normally you'd encounter them at restaurants.) They checked our identification and entered our names into the system, as well as asked about our health. From there we were directed around more cones into traffic lanes, leading up to where the vaccinations were delivered. Again, after a brief wait, and more checking our registration--confirming our appointment numbers (written on the windows) and names--we entered a tent. Two nurses briefed us on the vaccine and delivered our shots. They directed us to a waiting area, where we were asked to wait 15 minutes in case of an adverse reaction. And, voila, it was over--in under an hour. -
2020-02-05
Father Received 2nd Dose
The other day I went with my dad to the State Farm Stadium vaccination site in Glendale and he got his 2nd Pfizer dose. It's amazing to know that for him the pandemic is "over", as he likely will not be hospitalized if he does contract Covid-19 in the future. As my father was my main concern being a young person, it lifts a weight of my shoulders knowing if I come back from class with Covid that I won't hurt him. Currently, he is the only one in my family, including extended, who has received it. He's apart of the minority of Americans who are fully vaccinated, hopefully the numbers will increase soon. -
2021-02-03
Vaccinated.
Last night I got my second dose of the Pfizer vaccine for COVID. I feel like it should have been easier than this. I got my first dose of the vaccine at Chandler-Gilbert Community College, which we found out later was a county-run rather than a state-run location. Cardinals Stadium in Glendale is a state site. So the difference amounted to not getting the email about my second appointment for an anxiety-inducing long time. So when a new block opened up at the stadium, I signed up to get my second shot on the 21st day after my first, at the earliest opportunity. My husband’s appointment for his first dose is two days later. We arrived at the stadium, got my appointment number chalked on the windshield, and wove through a maze of cones and banners toward the check-in tents. When we pulled up, the lady checked my number and couldn’t find me. She searched for my birthday and couldn’t find me. She searched by my name and couldn’t find me. She took my ID and walked off to find a supervisor. I stared at my appointment confirmation email on my phone while she did all of this. The supervisor returns and, after asking to look at my email, handed me a clipboard. “We are going to sign you in as a walk-in, which doesn’t even exist right now. We can’t take walk-in rights right now because it’s possible that people with appointments won’t get their short today because our daily inventory is low.” That’s why my husband was not one of the lucky ones that we have heard stories about who got to get their dose early by coming along with someone who had an appointment sooner than them. I filled out the form, the lady made me a new appointment on her tablet, and the confirmation email for an appointment slot one hour before appeared. We turned the truck back on and moved through the second maze to the next set of tents, where they covered the same questions before sending us under the second tent where a younger man gloved up, came around to the passenger door, and quickly injected me. He must have seen that we were younger as we pulled up, even with our masks on, because he said to me, “Alright, I will give you this if when I do you scream, FUCK COVID,” which of course I agreed to. But if you have had the vaccine yet, you know it goes by so quickly that I barely got out the FU.. before he said, “okay, you’re good to go.” A third maze brought us to the line of cars waiting their 15 minutes to see if they have a bad reaction before pulling out and heading back home. I now had my second dose, and my husband has yet to get his first, so we didn’t need the help of the people milling between cars signing up people for second doses who had just gotten their first. We got to the front of the escape line and then were released, maybe a few minutes before the 15 were really up, but we were off. My COVID card is complete. When I got my first dose, the guidance was that 30 days after your second dose is your true “good to go” date because it has had time to take effect, but in the last three weeks, that has been shortened to two weeks. I don’t know if that is smart or accurate, or if, like everything, people want this to hurry along so things can go back to “normal” after we have been at this for a year. But vaccines are still hard to get, kids can’t get it, and we don’t know how long it will be effective, so maybe we shouldn’t get too excited.