By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

I feel the need to offer a note of frustration in dealing with obtaining a vaccine shot to fend off the COVID-19 virus.

We are on different inoculation tracks in our house. I received my first vaccine shot from the North Texas Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Dallas; I’ll get my second shot in a few days.

My wife is getting her first vaccine dose later this week. She is obtaining hers through one of Collin County’s vaccination “hubs,” at John Carter Stadium in Plano, Texas. She’ll be there, get her shot and then we’ll return home.

My frustration dealt with trying to talk to a living, breathing human being at the Collin County Health Department. I couldn’t connect with a living person as I sought to clarify an issue that needed immediate attention.

We got two phone calls today from Collin County. The first one dealt with my appointment at Carter Stadium; we had registered with the county wait list and today our names came up. I sought to call the county back to tell someone that I didn’t need to report for my vaccine; the Department of Veterans Affairs has me covered. I couldn’t find anyone with whom I could clarify the issue.

The second call came about 30 minutes later. The recorded voice told me that my wife had been scheduled at the stadium on the same day I was supposed to report. Fine. Good deal. She’s in!

I am well aware that our health agencies are facing intense pressure to answer questions from anxious Americans. I tend to get hyper-anxious when I cannot obtain answers in a timely, efficient fashion. I am not leveling blame at anyone. I merely am expressing a level of frustration linked directly to the potential consequence of something slipping through the cracks.

We’re dealing straight on with a virus that has killed far north of 400,000 Americans. My most sincere aim is to get answers quickly from fellow human beings who get paid to provide them.

There. Rant over. We’re taking one step at a time toward protecting ourselves from this killer. I believe the frustration will subside.