What You Need To Know Now That People 16+ with IDD, Their Families, and Support Workers Are Eligible For the COVID Vaccine
People with Developmental Disabilities, their families, and all direct support workers (PSWs, DSPs, and unpaid supports) are now eligible to get the COVID-19 vaccine! COVID vaccines have been tested and proven effective and are arriving now in Oregon. We all have questions about how vaccines will get to all the people who need them. We gathered some information to share about the unfolding COVID-19 vaccination process. Our goal is to provide people with the most accurate information so that they can be healthy, safe and informed about the process.
An Introduction to the COVID-19 Vaccine
COVID-19 rages on in Oregon and across the nation. We are all tired of being careful, having to think and rethink every basic routine. Adapting to new realities and understanding of how we stand to contract and spread this disease. Please, give yourself a pat on the back for how compliant and diligent you have been. But keep in mind that our risk of overrunning our hospitals, killing our front-line medical workers, and harming the people we love is as high as it has ever been. The same protective measures we are all so familiar with are still our best--do not gather indoors with people outside your household, wear a mask when you leave the house, and wash your hands. We cannot afford to let our guard down, for the safety of what matters most.
Finding the Path Forward
Our society is currently consumed with finding a way back to “normal” after months of staying home. But what of the other part of that line–staying safe? We have succeeded in “flattening the curve” here in Oregon, meaning that we have slowed this disease from tearing through our population at the deadly pace at which it began. But we have done so at great cost, through the extraordinary measures of closing down businesses, schools, recreation, and non-essential medical care. How do we keep from undoing all of our good work by allowing the virus to travel freely among us? This is a question we will be grappling with for months to come.