PERSPECTIVE FROM THE 19^TH HOLE:  This is the title I chose for my personal blog, which is meant to give me an outlet for one of my favorite crafts – writing – plus to use an image from my favorite sport, golf.  Out of college, my first job was as a reporter for the Daily Astorian in Astoria, Oregon, and I went on from there to practice writing in all of my professional positions, including as press secretary in Washington, D.C. for a Democrat Congressman from Oregon (Les AuCoin), as an Oregon state government manager in Salem and Portland, as press secretary for Oregon’s last Republican governor (Vic Atiyeh), and as a private sector lobbyist.  This blog also allows me to link another favorite pastime – politics and the art of developing public policy – to what I write.  I could have called this blog “Middle Ground,” for that is what I long for in both politics and golf.  The middle ground is often where the best public policy decisions lie.  And it is where you want to be on a golf course.

This will be an unusual story because, if you read newspapers or watch television coverage of the vaccination roll-out, your sense is that there is nothing but problems.

To be sure, there are problems and no doubt there will be more with such a huge undertaking – vaccinating the entire population.

But my recent positive experience is worth noting.

Yesterday, my wife and I headed from our winter home in La Quinta, California, west to the town of Beaumont along I-10.  There, we were scheduled to get the first Pfizer vaccine at 9:15 a.m., an appointment I was lucky enough to book about a week ago with the help of a senior citizen center. 

Yes, I am senior citizen.

We arrived in Beaumont about an hour early and parked in a line of about 30 cars.  Before long, we started moving and, in about 10 minutes, we were parked in a school lot and heading into a building where we would receive the shots.

Inside the building, the line was not long, even with marked social distancing separations. 

All we had to do was present our identification and a copy of our e-mailed appointment confirmation.

Soon, the friendly staff summoned us to a table and, in only a matter of seconds, my wife and I received the shots.  I almost didn’t feel it, expecting something different, given what I had heard through grapevines about the size of the needle and keeping the needle in the arm long enough to deposit all of the vaccine.

But, easy. 

Then, we were told to sit for about 15 minutes to assure that we did not have any reactions.

We did not.

Overall, in about an hour, we were out of the vaccine site and headed home, with a commitment for a second dose on or about February 26.

As a former journalist, I have had questions about how many outlets cover the vaccine process.  It appears they find something wrong and then focus on that to the exclusion of cases where processes work well.

Two of the positive cases have been in Beaumont and, by many accounts, back in our hometown, Salem, Oregon.  There, Salem Health has received plaudits for running, with help from the Oregon National Guard, a site at the State Fairgrounds that has used the Pfizer vaccine to good success.

Media coverage strikes me a little like coverage of a snowstorm in Oregon.  When you see what amounts to a snapshot, you are left with impression that cars and trucks are stuck all over the place and it is snowing everywhere.  No.  It is not.  It is a snapshot.

Much the same could be said vaccine distribution.  I say reporters should take a series of snapshots, including the good and the bad, and then produce fairer accounts.

Meanwhile, regardless of media coverage, I just hope vaccine distribution processes continue unabated so we can reach herd immunity, which, I know, will take many more months.