States are making new groups eligible for Covid-19 vaccines at a faster but uneven pace, creating discrepancies that create confusion and encourage some people to move to places with milder policies.
New Yorkers age 60 and older were eligible for vaccinations on Wednesday. In neighboring New Jersey, residents 65 and older are eligible, while in Connecticut, the cutoff age is 55. Pittsburgh hospitality workers do not qualify, but some of their colleagues are because they smoke. And in Michigan, restaurant and bar staff are subject to different rules depending on the county they live in.
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Aimée Coldren, a 37-year-old bartender in Detroit, said she has received two doses of the vaccine. Her boyfriend Casey Miller, 34, a bartender at a speakeasy in nearby Ann Arbor, is not yet eligible.
“Why are things different from province to province?” Mr. Miller said.
The vaccination coverage in the US is increasing. President Biden said earlier this month that there would be enough vaccines for all American adults by the end of May. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, more than 95 million shots have been administered in the US so far, and the number has grown to about 2.2 million shots per day.
For now, however, states and cities are setting completely different rules for who is eligible for admission and when. In some places, including Chicago and Florida, residency requirements apply to reserve admissions for people most vulnerable to severe cases of Covid-19. Others, including Ohio, vaccinate anyone who claims to be eligible, even nonresidents. According to state data, about 45,000 non-residents have been vaccinated there.
In Kentucky, hospitality workers are included among the groups of people currently eligible for vaccines. But many Louisville hotel workers live across the Ohio River in Indiana, for example, which, according to the Indiana Health Department, has not opened vaccinations for hospitality workers and focuses on vaccinating people 50 and older.
“It’s pretty obvious in an unclear way,” said Hank Phillips, president and chief executive of the Kentucky Travel Industry Association. “It’s Covid’s strange reality.”
A vaccination clinic set up by Norton Healthcare at Bates Memorial Baptist Church in Louisville, Ky.
Photo:
Jon Cherry / Getty Images
Hospital System Norton Healthcare has set up vaccination clinics in Louisville churches that attract visitors from Indiana and Kentucky alike, Chief Medical Officer Steven Hester said. “Our goal is to get people vaccinated,” he said.
In Indiana, hospital operator Baptist Health Floyd has ramped up credentials of key workers seeking vaccines.
“We took people’s word for it to be health professionals or emergency responders, but clearly they weren’t,” said Brian Cox, Baptist Health Floyd’s director of hospital operations.
Some cities and states, such as Connecticut and Maine, dropped categories they said they couldn’t control in favor of an age-based system. Long Beach, California, recently made vaccines available without an appointment to any resident 65 or older.
City spokeswoman Jennifer Rice Epstein said some out-of-towners had used an earlier system for booking appointments online. “If it happens, we’ll send those people away,” she said.
Some people work together to find extra doses. A Los Angeles Covid Vaccine Hunters group on Facebook has more than 7,000 members. Another Maryland group has more than 63,000 members.
Alerts and web browser tools can help you book a Covid-19 vaccine appointment. WSJ’s Joanna Stern met Kris Slevens, an IT guy who has made more than 300 appointments for New Jersey seniors, to learn the best tricks for taking part in the Hunger Games that book vaccines. Photo illustration: Emil Lendof for The Wall Street Journal
Phil Cohen, a 32-year-old literary director in Brooklyn, said he has helped about 30 people find an appointment. “I’m telling people maybe you should get to Coney Island as soon as possible or you should be lugging to the Bronx tomorrow,” he said. “It’s certainly not for those on a tight schedule.”
Lisa Martin, 43, administrator of a Chicago Vaccine Hunters group on Facebook, said she was driving five hours south of her home to Jackson County with her entire family after meeting online. While some Illinois counties only vaccinate residents, Jackson allowed outsiders.
“Everyone deserves a vaccine,” said Ms. Martin. “Nobody deserves it more than anyone else.”
Lysandra Bailen, a 40-year-old real estate agent in Henderson, Nevada who is not yet eligible for vaccination in her state, said that as a single mother, she was concerned about what would happen to her two children if they were hospitalized . A friend’s husband recently died of Covid-19 at the age of 38, she said, leaving behind his wife and children.
“I couldn’t do that to my children,” said Mrs. Bailen.
She said she spent every spare minute for weeks searching vaccine groups online and plotting vaccine sites. When she arrived at a massive vaccination site an hour before she recently opened, 30 people were ahead of her on a waiting list for additional doses to be distributed by the end of the day.
She came back at 3 p.m. and received a vaccination. “It was just a combination of persistence and luck,” she said.
Write to Julie Wernau at [email protected] and Talal Ansari at [email protected]
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