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Article In Today's WSJ: Vaccine Envy:

 

Couples who vowed to cherish each other in sickness and in health are facing a new challenge—a dose of marital vaccine envy.
Jennifer Baum, a 55-year-old New Yorker, navigated the search online for Covid-19 vaccines to grab an appointment for her 71-year-old husband, Charles. But she is among the last in line for eligibility because of her age, job and medical status.
“I don’t fit in any categories,” she said. “There are a few 3-year-olds after me.”
Ms. Baum, chief executive of Bullfrog + Baum marketing firm, is glad her husband got a precious shot and says it is a privilege to be healthy enough to be low-priority. But she can’t help feeling jealous that he can contemplate an in-person reunion with his poker buddies, while she has to wait, for who knows how long, to visit relatives in California she hasn’t seen in a year.
“I would like to see my family,” she said. “And I would like to get a facial.”
Spouses on different sides of the eligibility divide are dealing with a mix of relief, gratitude and impatience. “Vaccine envy” has become so common it has its own hashtag on Twitter, but for the romantically intertwined, it can hit especially close to home.
Some who have been vaccinated say their behavior hasn’t changed much. The CDC advises those who have been vaccinated to continue basic precautions, such as wearing masks and keeping 6 feet apart. Researchers say it’s possible that even those who have been vaccinated might carry the virus without showing symptoms and pass it onto others.(Indeed people with two vaccinations have tested positive in Calif. ) the stuff ain't foolproof!
Still, those who got shots say they wish they could share the reprieve from stress.
“It’s not exactly a nyah-nyah moment,” said Mr. Baum, who was formerly co-owner of the Rainbow Room and Windows on the World restaurant in New York City. “Once you have the second shot, it’s not as if you get a get-out-of-jail free card.”
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Barbara Waters, who is 64-and-a-half years old, just missed the cutoff for vaccines in Santa Rosa, Calif. Her 78-year-old husband got one last week. She said she asked her doctor how she could get a vaccine, and “He said you’re in the SOL group,” for s— outta luck.
Patti Banks, left, and her husband Stuart Schenendorf, and their dog, Mathison. Mr. Schenendorf received a vaccine, but Ms. Banks isn’t yet eligible.

Patti Banks, who is 61, was delighted when her 65-year-old husband, Stuart Schenendorf, texted her a photo of his sticker saying he had been inoculated. As a medical writer in Manhattan, he was extremely cautious and had been driving her crazy with restrictions, she said.
“We’ve been married 19 years, and we fought more from April through now than the entire time we were married,” Ms. Banks said. “I got a cough and he didn’t want me to go down the hallway to empty the garbage. I hugged a neighbor and he got all mad at me.”
Her husband didn’t want her to do her outdoor “boot camp” exercise class but she needs to escape their one-bedroom apartment, she said, so she works out with a video sometimes in a vacant boardroom at JPMorgan Chase, where she has a job in asset management.
Mr. Schenendorf can’t wait for his second dose and dreams of going to Yankee games and maybe a trip to the movies. “I’m dying for a big thing of popcorn,” he said.
He wants his wife to get a shot as soon as she is eligible. Ms. Banks said she “would like to get it because I think he would be more comfortable.”
Brian Rooney, a former correspondent for ABC News who lives in Hyde Park, N.Y., was able to nab a shot in Albany this month because he is 69. He tried to persuade the clinic to vaccinate his 63-year-old wife while they were there, with no luck. “I rue I’m old enough to qualify,” he said. “They keep talking about senior citizens first. I’m really a senior citizen?”
Margery and Robert Quackenbush with their grandchildren.

Margery Quackenbush, an 82-year-old therapist, was thrilled to get an appointment for her 91-year-old husband through the Department of Veterans Affairs. She heard at her senior center that she could get a shot too when she escorted him to the Manhattan VA Medical Center but was dismayed when her request at the clinic was rejected.
“It was very upsetting,” she said. “He couldn’t have gotten there without me. I know how to stage a scene but didn’t.”
Ms. Quackenbush said she was angry at government rule makers and the VA. “Who are they to decide who gets vaccinated and who doesn’t?” she asked.
ichael Drake, a spokesman for the VA NY Harbor Healthcare System, said by email that “to ensure that we preserve our supply of vaccine for our most vulnerable veterans,” the center isn’t authorized to offer shots to the general public at this time.
Ms. Quackenbush finally got her chance when a concerned neighbor went online at 2 a.m. one day to beat the competition. Her first dose was scheduled for Monday at the Javits Center in Manhattan.
Her husband, Robert Quackenbush, a children’s book author, got his second dose on Saturday, so their Valentine’s Day dinner doubled as a vaccination party, with filet mignon wrapped in bacon, baked potato with caviar and chocolate mousse.
Their toast: “To getting through all this.”

Jeeze! it helps to B single!