I was reminded Wednesday that exactly one year previous we had gotten our first Covid vaccination. When we realized that it had already been a year we started remembering what was happening prior to getting our shots.

It was a rather bleak period in Iowa. Vaccines had been approved just before Christmas 2020, but there was an extremely limited supply. What supply there was was obviously going to the most vulnerable. So even though vaccines were slowly getting out to the public, the chances of us getting vaccinated were far off in the future.

The states were put in charge of distribution, and Covid Kim seemed to have little interest in doing much to get vaccines out. Nobody in her administration seemed to have much of a clue. I sent emails to the group running the program that must have gone to email heaven.  

As I somewhat vaguely recall, local drugstores would find out the day before what kind of a supply they would be getting on the next day. Based on that, they would post sign up sheets early in the morning. For the ones I dealt with, a person had to be in their database. Once they entered themselves in the database, they could try every day to sign up for an opening. I would do this daily at 5AM. By the time I got there most of the slots were filled.

Day after day throughout January and early February I would get up, sign on and find the slots filled. By my calculation, even though we were in one of the higher prioritized groups, I sort of calculated that we might be lucky to get vaccinated in June, maybe July based on speed that vaccinations were going.

In the country we had the attempted overthrow of our government. We also finally had the inauguration of Joe Biden which gave us a lot of hope. Fixing the vaccination mess would be a huge priority for Biden. Don’t forget that the previous administration did all they could to handcuff the Biden Administration by refusing to handoff any records or do any train for the incoming staffers. So the Biden Administration had to start at ground zero.

Within a couple weeks they worked some kind of a human miracle. The Biden Administration worked with manufacturers to greatly increase the production. They got storage units out to more and more distribution sites. They set up mass clinics that could do hundreds of folks at a time. 

I got a call from my sister-in-law one morning. She said my niece had seen a blurb about a mass clinic taking place in the area in a couple of days. Knowing we were desolate to get vaxxed, she gave us a call. Within a couple weeks the vaccination process had gone from almost zero to full speed. Our estimated vaccination date went from sometime in June with some luck to day after tomorrow. We were ecstatic.

We got vaccinated. We got the second dose a few weeks later. The state of Iowa and the Reynolds Administration still seemed to be lost in the woods, but the Biden Administration was getting the job done in a hurry. What at one time looked like it might take a year to get all people vaccinated was done in a few months – at least to the point of people who would get vaxxed.

I don’t think anybody ever anticipated that there would be so much resistance to being vaccinated for what was and still is a killer virus. The resistance seemed to be aimed at making the Biden Administration look like a failure because the virus was still out in the public. Rather than making Biden look bad, these folks made themselves look like fools by choosing to die a horrible death when a simple vaccination could have saved them.

So, despite a crazy opposition, the Biden Administration started off with a bang by getting a huge portion of the public vaccinated against one of the worst pandemics the world has seen. Biden’s administration also led the world in getting vaccines to poorer countries. 

With Covid cases currently going through a drastic drop, where is the press to give credit to the guy who has been laser focused on the pandemic from day one and who has done much of the work that is bringing the numbers down. Strangely, we hear no praise for Biden at a time when he should be getting credit.

While working what was an amazing feat in getting the public vaccinated, that was just one of the huge problems that the Biden Admin had to deal with. Unemployment was rampant, people were in danger of losing their homes and many Americans simply needed money. Biden and the Democrats passed relief measures to address immediate problems and set up the groundwork that would get people back to work.

So here we are a year later with 7 million additional jobs in the bank and more being created daily. Public schools are back open. Vaccinations have been extended to the 12 to 18 year olds first and the 5 to 11 year olds last Thanksgiving. Vaccines for the toddler set are really close.

Should the Covid pandemic actually subside as many are predicting, will the Biden-Harris administration get the credit they deserve for wrestling this monster to the ground? Given the tilt of the media, I would doubt it.

These are just a very brief list of Biden accomplishments. Did I mention that wages have taken a healthy jump? Yet to read or listen to the dominant (right wing) press in this country you would think Biden is driving the country in the ground. All they blather about is inflation.

We note that inflation is high, but the Administration has had little to do with causing the problem. It is world wide and much of it due to corporate greed and problems caused by the bad response to the original waves of covid. 

Few Administrations have had such a fast start. There are still major problems to be dealt with. At a time like this it is so much better to have an administration in office that will work to solve problems rather than make them worse for political gain. 

So turn off the Fox TVs and turn off the right wing radio. Do a little reading that deals with reality. This is a good time to watch a real president do his job. 

Tip of the hat to http://all-hat-no-cattle.blogspot.com