Those at high-risk who are outside rollout criteria seek path to vaccination

Patience is running thin for people who are next up for a vaccine. One woman is just outside the criteria for the current group, and she wants to know when it’s her turn.

People who are extremely vulnerable to the coronavirus technically have some options for the vaccine in Florida, but a doctor says lack of supply is a major constraint to serve people outside the current rollout criteria.

“I would like to find out when someone like me, who is a year short of 65 but has heart disease and emphysema, will be eligible for the shot,” Kathy Strough said. “If I’m having a bad day, I don’t get off the sofa. It’s too hard for me to breathe. I just lay on the sofa all day.”

That and her heart murmur are reasons why Strough believes, if she contracts COVID-19, it will kill her.

At 63 years old, Strough can’t get the vaccine.

“I did contact my doctor, who gave me a letter stating that I’m high-risk and at high-priority for the vaccine,” Strough explained. “But when I called the Department of Health, they said it doesn’t matter.”

While she waits for her turn, Strough thinks about the time she’s losing with loved ones — time she can’t get back.

“My dad has heart issues also, and my mom had cancer,” Strough said. “They’re 87, and I’m an only child, so I haven’t seen them in over a year, and I’d like to see them before anything happens to them.”

Strough hopes the State will move people like her up in line.

“I don’t want to take it away from anybody else,” she said. “I just want us to be included.”

Dr. David Lindner, the director of NCH Healthcare System’s COVID-19 response team, says changing the criteria for the vaccine in the state right now is easier said than done.

“Trying to get the 50-year-old who truly is at amazingly high risk for an unfavorable outcome from COVID is difficult right now,” Linder said.

Lindner has the power to help vulnerable people such as Strough, but he doesn’t have the supply.

“The only group of people who are allowed to vaccinate that person is a hospital, and we’ve only been provided enough vaccines to do our staff. We have not been allocated additional vaccine yet by the State,” Lindner explained. “I’m hoping that the State soon fixes that and starts allocating vaccine to those of us who want to target entities that are being missed by the state.”