by Nick Taylor
I worried that my COVID-19 vaccination scheduled for this morning at New York’s Javits Center would be an all-day endurance test. Fearing the worst, I loaded a good book and a writing pad into a shoulder bag and headed for the subway. I arrived a few minutes before my 9:15 appointment and — Wow! I was amazed at the efficiency of the COVID-19 vaccine delivery system at the Javits Center.
The Javits Center is huge, but signs gave clear guidance where to enter. Inside, guided by New York National Guardspeople in camouflage, I went to an intake desk where I showed a photo ID and the appointment ticket I was emailed after I made my reservation online through the New York State Department of Health website.
Then, again directed by several of what looked to be scores of National Guard guides, I followed arrows and distancing decals from one room to another before ending up in a long room with desks spaced along the aisles. Here, a worker confirmed my birth date and asked some of the same screening questions I’d answered to register online.
After that, I was on my feet again and following more Guard directions — left here, see that Guard member, follow her — and soon I was in the room to get my shot.
I was pointed to a tall nurse in braids wearing a mask and eye shield and blue latex gloves. Her name was Katrina Culberson and she was a traveler, a nurse who went where she was needed. Katrina was from Saginaw, Michigan, and this was her first time in New York. She was staying in New Jersey for the moment, because she’d driven from Saginaw and hadn’t realized that parking in the city might be difficult.
Katrina asked for my “non-dominant arm.” I’d had the sense to wear a short-sleeved T-shirt, so I took my sweater off and propped my left arm on the table. Seconds later, it was done.
A data entry person named Bibi sitting at a computer recorded that Nick Taylor of Zip code 10014 had had Pfizer shot No. 1. With that I was off to follow more arrows and National Guard directions to an area where I’d sit for 15 minutes in case I had a bad reaction. Along the way a Guardsman handed me a sticker.
After 15 minutes I still felt fine. It was around 9:40 at that point and I’d been in the building a little more than half an hour. But one more line awaited me. Both COVID-19 vaccinations, Pfizer‘s and Moderna‘s, are two-shot protocols. The next line led to counters where you’d make an appointment for your second shot. This took another half-hour, but around 10:15 I was headed for the exit with an appointment to come back to the Javits Center on the morning of Feb. 5.
Compliments are in order here. The National Guard soldiers were courteous and cheerful. Katrina, the nurse from Saginaw, was too. New York Department of Health workers helping to guide and organize the throngs were a model of efficiency. Whether that would last all day long, who knows? Katrina told me she’d given between 25 and 40 shots on Wednesday, her first day, and had heard that around 1,400 shots in all had been administered. Lines were longer and moved slower later in the day. Still, in a city that invented the word “gridlock,” having the first COVID-19 shot in my arm and the experience of getting it were a relief and, for what it was, a pleasure.
