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Where’s the vaccine?
Taking it up court
Short supplies lead to frustration for those hoping to get vaccinated By BiLL SanserVino
Blue Devils girls’ basketball player Tamara Warner evades a defender. For coverage of the team, turn to Page 15. (Photo taken by Sarita Wilson.)
Jake Kaplan is a ‘Soul’ man Longtime Ewing resident worked on Pixar’s latest film By Rebecca BrieGs
Jake Kaplan was proud to put his heart and “soul” into the latest film by Pixar, the legendary animation studio. That movie, titled Soul, was released on Christmas Day and is currently streaming on the Disney+ streaming service. Soul follows the story of Joe Gardner, a middle school band teacher and jazz musician.
One day he stumbles down a manhole, and winds up in The Great Before—a place where new souls get their personalities, quirks and interests before they go to Earth. While he’s there, Gardner learns the true meaning of life while helping a soul named 22, who has never understood the appeal of the human experience. Kaplan, who lived in Ewing for 19 years from infancy, had two roles working on the movie. For the first year and a half, he worked in the Art Department, which produced
character designs, set designs and more. His job as a coordinator was to take in inventory from the story department, identify what needed to be designed and distribute the inventory among his team. At one time, he worked with between 5 to 20 artists. Once completed, he would pass his team’s finished projects onto the next department. Kaplan’s second role for the last few months working on Soul was as coordinator within the Sets Department. “In the Sets Department, we see KAPLAN, Page 10
While the COVID-19 pandemic continued to rage throughout the United States during the month of January, the government struggled to provide enough doses to those looking to be protected from the deadly virus. Across the country, states have struggled to meet demand, and the doses shipped have been significantly outweighed by the number of people looking to be vaccinated. When appointments do open up at vaccination sites, available slots are often booked up within hours or less. People have been left confused and frustrated—wondering how, when and where they will get inoculated. In New Jersey, the vaccine was first made available to healthcare workers, first responders and staff and residents of long-term care facilities starting in mid-December. Then at the beginning of January, the Trump Administration announced that it was releasing the stockpile of vaccines it was holding to ensure people would be able to get the required second dose. A few days later, on Jan. 14, New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy opened up vaccinations to people ages 65 and older, and those with high-risk medical conditions. It was subsequently revealed there was no stockpile of vaccines, and that the second doses
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had already been released at the end of December. This exacerbated the problem—an even larger pool of people were left seeking vaccinations, but the anticipated increase in supply never occurred. This resulted in a severe shortage in appointments available for qualified individuals. (For information on who currently qualifies to get the vaccine, see the graphic on Page 4.) Currently, there are three ways for qualified individuals to make an appointment. To start, all people should register with the N.J. Vaccine Scheduling System (covidvaccine.nj.gov). They will be emailed an invitation to schedule an appointment when they are eligible and slots open up. The state has also set up an NJVSS call center to assist individuals, including those with no computers, in pre-registering and scheduling a COVID-19 vaccine appointment. For assistance call (855) 568-0545. The second is to make an appointment directly with one of the many designated vaccination sites across the state. In Mercer, these include: Capital Health System in Hopewell; the Henry J. Austin Health Centers in Trenton; Hunterdon Family and Sports Medicine in Pennington; the Princeton Health Dept.; Riverside Urgent Care in Ewing; Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital Hamilton; the ShopRite at Hamilton Marketplace Boulevard; and the ShopRite in Pennington. Other nearby sites include: Princeton Medical Center see VACCINE, Page 4
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