DALLAS — Now nearly one month into its operation as a FEMA COVID-19 mass vaccination site, the Fair Park drive-thru vaccination process has improved dramatically.
At least that was my experience on a Friday morning when it was my turn in line.
In its first weeks as a drive-thru operation, let's just say the Fair Park vaccination site had its share of problems. Registration confusion, traffic headaches, wait times up to six hours.
But Friday morning I experienced a smoothly operating vaccination machine.
My wife and I qualify now because, we high school sweethearts can't quite believe it, but we are a bit closer to 60 now than we are to 50. Along with us at the same vaccine appointment were my college student niece and her boyfriend: qualifying as previous volunteers at the Fair Park site.
The wait time Friday morning, for us, was slightly less than one hour. Volunteers scanned our registration QR codes, confirmed or registrations, and members of the Army from Fort Riley, deployed Feb. 19 to assist at the site, administered Pfizer doses to all four of us without us ever leaving our car.
As is the custom at all vaccine sites, we were then asked to wait 10 minutes before driving away: a precaution to make sure no one experiences adverse side effects. We have not.
As of Friday, the Texas Department of State Health Services says more than three million people, including us, have received both doses of COVID vaccine. Nearly nine million total doses have been administered.
Vaccine is a choice. Recent polls suggest that upwards of 35% of Americans do not plan to get a COVID vaccine. I got the vaccine so that maybe I can use it in the same sentence with things like polio, and smallpox, and diphtheria: not have to think of them at all, thanks to vaccines.
And now I'm a step closer to hugging my 80-year-old mom in California who I haven't seen, by choice, in more than a year. My sister, a Nurse Practitioner, has been on the front lines of the COVID fight, has seen its toll, and has seen too many lives lost. She's in charge of who gets to see Mom and when. And we trust her as the best-educated gatekeeper in the family.
But now, with my mom fully vaccinated too, I can have a bit more confidence I won't bring COVID home when that long-awaited hug finally happens.
Hopefully very soon.