Why I couldn't wait longer

The Covid-19 pandemic presents many challenges to nearly everyone. As a single father to 6 and 7 year old children and manager of my homebound, bedridden 88 year old father’s 24/7 care in his private residence, I recognized early on it would be necessary to curtail most day-to-day and social activities to lessen exposure to the outside world for the safety of my loved ones.

I haven’t waivered from my belief that the recommended safety measures, such as, mask wearing, frequent hand-washing, limits on numbers of individuals grouped together, and social distancing are prudent and geared to offer some degree of proactive protection. My children began and continue to participate in virtual school, in lieu of attending on-site classes. I have restricted visitors to my father, which has been extremely tough to endure for all of us close family members and especially my dad, who thrives on these loving connections.

Thankfully, vaccinations have become available and gradually been provided starting for those at greater risk, such as the extreme elderly and frontline essential workers, and now for individuals age of 16 and older. Unfortunately, there is a vulnerable group that has been greatly overlooked, as no or extremely limited services have been enacted to vaccinate homebound individuals, in our country.

As an advocate for my dad, I contacted the local County Health Department and the Veteran’s Administration (my father proudly served his country) to determine if there was a plan to provide in-home vaccinations to those that were unable to leave their homes. Both organizations reported that this was not available, at this time. Next, I shared my frustrations and concerns with a local television news reporter, which resulted in the airing of a televised interview with me at my father’s home. Like me, the reporter was unable to get any promising feedback from the local vaccination sources. Following the televised report, I received messages from multiple people experiencing the same concerns regarding this issue. Who knows how many forgotten homebound citizens remain unvaccinated and unprotected!