Editorial: Get in line — if you can find it

You would think a global pandemic that has lasted nearly a year would have gotten New York more organized, right? 

In the beginning, none of us had any idea what was going on with COVID-19. Every day was a new battle, and we had to evolve everything in our lives constantly. 

That was OK. It was fair. The virus was new and we, as Americans, never experienced anything like this before. There was a learning curve. 

Back in March, April and even into June, it was a little more understandable knowing that getting tested for the coronavirus was hard. We didn’t have enough testing, supplies or even gloves for the nurses and doctors to wear as they administered the swab. 

Fine. But why is it almost February 2021 and we still have practically no organizational skills? 

Why is it that New Yorkers are told one thing about testing and now vaccines, but when they try to take advantage of it, they’re denied? 

We have co-workers, family members and friends who should be getting their vaccines. They’re in the most at-risk age group, they’re workers in a medical office but aren’t first responders, they’re out in the public, working as cashiers at grocery stores and big-box retailers taking money from people they don’t know. 

Why can’t they get the vaccine yet? 

Reports say that there isn’t enough available yet — and supplies, once again, are low. 

We understand that. We understand that there are more than 7 million people on Long Island alone. 

But what we don’t understand is why there’s little transparency, and contradicting reports. Why can some people get it and others cannot? 

We have heard stories of some elderly people who cannot get an appointment at all, and no one is there to help them. We hear other stories that people waited in line for nearly five hours. Other stories say that they drove up to the site and were finished in 10 minutes.

We just want answers. We want a plan. We want a serious plan that will give us a play-by-play on what to do, what to expect and a timeline. 

Curveballs will happen. We saw that a lot in 2020. 

But clearly the federal, state and local governments did not have “to stay organized with anything related to COVID” on their New Year’s resolutions list. 

This is not the time to go with the flow. Lives are at stake.