PROVIDENCE, R.I. (WPRI) — Hundreds of health care workers on the front lines of the coronavirus pandemic are getting vaccinated daily, and those who work in the private sector are wondering when it will be their turn to get the shot.
Arthur Keegan, owner of Prehab Sports Medicine tells 12 News he knows the chance to receive the vaccine will eventually come his way, but he just wants to know when.
He said he’s tried contacting the Rhode Island Department of Health for answers, but believes his questions and concerns are falling on deaf ears.
“Nobody there seemed to have an answer,” Keegan said.
Keegan has heard from physical therapists who work at hospitals and said many of them have already been vaccinated.
“Community-based people, like ourselves, we don’t even know where we fall in the queue to get our vaccines,” he said.
Joseph Wendelken, a spokesperson for the R.I. Department of Health, said in a statement, “We have not yet finalized all the groups for the different vaccination phases. We should have the final vaccination schedule available to the public very shortly.”
It’s a decision that Keegan waits for while seeing a full schedule of patients daily.
“It’s not a virtual thing that we can do,” he said. “We’re right with people, we’re touching them. It’s a very tactile profession and it’s not something you can do 6 feet away from anybody.”
He said while his employees wash their hands and sanitize their equipment between each appointment, receiving the vaccine would give him peace of mind for when he returns home to his family after work.
“I think it would just free up a lot of fear,” he said. “Fear is the big thing, we’ve been living with it and everybody’s been living with it, but there’s a degree of burnout on all of us.”
