My blog

I am lucky because I have already been vaccinated. It is the first dose of Pfizer, the second is planned for the end of May, but thanks to this delicate prick I have already gained a sense of protection against the filth that has taken over the world.

As soon as the news came out that scientists were finishing work on the vaccine, there was no doubt in my mind that I would get vaccinated as soon as possible. In January, when the government began vaccinating seniors and gave everyone the opportunity to submit a declaration of willingness to be vaccinated, I immediately submitted such declarations and began to wait politely for my turn.

Unexpectedly, in early April, a government machine called me and offered me a vaccination date for April 19, four kilometers from my home. I happily confirmed to the machine that I would gladly accept the offer, and so, without any action on my part, I was vaccinated.

Why is this strange? Because the government assured for weeks that it would first, right after healthcare workers, start vaccinating the oldest people, for whom the virus poses the greatest danger, and in the meantime, it vaccinated me – a fifty-year-old, even though several hundred thousand older people who have been registered for the vaccination are still waiting for it.

Why is this happening? Because idiotic solutions were adopted in the vaccination program. First, in January, when vaccines were in short supply, the government came up with the idea that the oldest people who wanted to get vaccinated had to call their own appointment. It made no sense at all.

It was enough, in November or December of last year, before the vaccine shipments arrived, for each clinic to calmly collect phone numbers of people from their area who want to get vaccinated, and then in January, when they received the first vaccines, to call everyone from their area, starting with the oldest, and invite them to get vaccinated. Why didn't the government come up with such a simple solution? Because this government doesn't trust local Poland and has to organize everything centrally.

In February/March, it turned out that the vaccination program invented by government amateurs has another unfortunate flaw. People who are registered for vaccinations several weeks in advance sometimes fail to show up at the clinic on the scheduled day. And then the clinic has a problem, because at the end of the day it is left with a few free vaccines that it cannot use. It cannot speed up the vaccination date for those who are scheduled later - because it does not have a phone number for these people. It also cannot give the vaccine to a random person, because it will break the regulations, which state that we vaccinate in order from the oldest. So how did the clinics deal with this? They quietly vaccinated friends, family or residents of the area. The government knew about this, because everyone vaccinated goes into the central system, but it turned a blind eye to it, because what else could it do? Where is the sense and logic in this?

Last week the government changed this idiotic regulation and now, if clinics have free doses, they can administer them to any person they choose in accordance with the regulations. Immediately, queues of people willing to receive unwanted vaccines that can be received without any registration began to form in front of clinics.

The scale of the absurdity is shown by the numbers. As of today, around 10 million vaccines have been administered in Poland, of which two thirds have been taken by people aged 60+, and as many as one third by people under the age of sixty, although several million people aged 60+ who want to be vaccinated are still waiting for their turn.
The government still sticks to its unwise central solution to the vaccination programme.

It was announced that after May 10, every adult Pole will receive a referral for vaccination. I ask myself, why? If every adult can get vaccinated, why do they need a referral? Why this whole logistical operation? Couldn't I sign up for vaccination right away, without waiting for a referral? And preferably at my clinic, not in Szczecin?

In the vaccination program, absurdity follows absurdity. In reality, however, this is not a problem at all. Of course, this whole process could have been carried out with head and logic, but ill-considered and simply stupid actions of the government are not able to stop this process, and at most will slow it down a bit and piss off a large number of our compatriots.

The real problem is death. The second and third wave of the pandemic, years of neglect in our health service and the omissions and mistakes of our government have caused almost 100 thousand excess deaths of Poles in the last year. Let's hope vaccinations stop this Armageddon.