It's just a shot away

The Oregon Covid vaccine ordeal continues in the morning, when a reported 7300 new appointments open up in Portland, and now seniors 70 and older are eligible. There are probably 200,000 unvaccinated people in the area who are eligible to jockey for those 7300 spots and get The Precious.

According to this story, they can call on the phone, go to a centralized statewide website, or try to track down an individual pharmacy that has a few doses. Apparently, the statewide site sends you into the Legacy Health computer system, but even if you're not a Legacy patient. they should be able to help you. Get there right at 9 a.m. and you might get a shot. By 20 after 9, it will all be over for who knows how long.

Sound like an orderly system to you? It's like trying to get tickets to a Grand Funk Railroad concert in the old days.

But our governor, Killer Kate, and her vaccine czar, the Guy Who Used to Run the Building Permits, told us on Friday that everything's going according to schedule. Except that now, they do have to work in some more "equity," because not enough people of color are getting the shots.

I believe that means that they'll be moving some more folks to the front of the line, ahead of the elderly white people. So far, we've had the 20-something gym teachers, anybody else who works for a school, and the 20-something prison inmates, all given the green light ahead of the law-abiding blue-hairs. Now I guess a batch of 20-something members of minority groups will have to be ushered in, too.

Oregon is reportedly near last in the country in getting people over 65 vaccinated. You know, the people most likely to die if they catch Covid.

Next week, people between 65 and 69 years old are expected to join in banging their heads against the wall. There ought to be an official state vaccine scheduling song. Get on those laptops and fight, fight, fight!

In the meantime, the elders of Oregon continue to take their lives into their hands going to the grocery store. What a mess.

They had nearly a year to get ready for this.