Biden Administration: 'It Will Be Months' Before Widespread Vaccine Availability
Consider This from NPR
NPR
4.2 • 6.2K Ratings
🗓️ 27 January 2021
⏱️ 14 minutes
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Summary
The lack of supply has led to different challenges in different areas of the country. NPR gathered three reporters to learn more: Blake Farmer with Nashville Public Radio, Amelia Templeton with Oregon Public Broadcasting, and Veronica Zaragovia with WLRN in Miami.
Additional reporting this episode from Georgia Public Broadcasting's Grant Blankenskip, who reported on efforts by Georgia residents to get a vaccine.
In participating regions, you'll also hear a local news segment that will help you make sense of what's going on in your community.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Here's a quick story of two attempts to get a vaccine with two different outcomes. |
| 0:06.0 | Well, I was hoping to get a shot this morning, but seems to be some confusion as to whether or not there's a vaccine here or they're going to do it by appointment only. |
| 0:16.0 | A few weeks back in Central Georgia, Larry Diller drove up to his local county health department with high hopes. |
| 0:23.0 | It had been listed as a no appointment drive up location, but when he got there, a sign at the edge of the lot said vaccinations were canceled. |
| 0:32.0 | So it's just been really frustrating. There needs to be some other method of getting the word out to people. |
| 0:40.0 | About an hour away, Monica Miller was also frustrated. Her mother and Crawford County couldn't even get through to the local health department on the phone. |
| 0:49.0 | So I was thinking to myself, oh, okay, we're just going to keep trying. |
| 0:54.0 | Miller really wanted her mom and dad to get a vaccine and she thought there has to be an app for that. |
| 0:59.0 | I went to my app store and I found an app that said redial app. |
| 1:06.0 | The redial app automated her phone to dial the county health department, wait 10 seconds and then try again. |
| 1:13.0 | She called more than 400 times over the next six hours. |
| 1:17.0 | So finally about 345, it picked up and it says you are placed in queue. |
| 1:24.0 | After that, it was quick. She got appointments for her parents at a vaccine site about 40 miles away. |
| 1:30.0 | But for the way that I did it, like I would not expect the average senior to be able to do that. |
| 1:39.0 | That's the reality of vaccine distribution in America right now. |
| 1:43.0 | In many places, it's not enough to be eligible. You might need a determined, tech savvy relative willing to spend six hours calling the same phone number. |
| 1:52.0 | All for the privilege of traveling 80 miles round trip twice, but there are two shots. |
| 1:57.0 | I don't know how you deal with all that, but you know, we put a man on the moon in the 60s. |
| 2:02.0 | We ought to be able to figure this out. |
| 2:04.0 | The Biden administration has promised to figure things out, but the president has said that in the last week, a clearer picture of the challenge emerged. |
| 2:12.0 | Once we arrived, a vaccine program is a worse shape than we anticipated or expected. |
| 2:20.0 | Coming up, how the slow vaccine rollout is being felt differently around the country. |
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