Second Shots

Got Our Second Shots

There is Light at the End of the Tunnel

 

My wife and I received our second Moderna COVID vaccine shots two and a half weeks ago and feel like we’ve emerged from a long hibernation. 

 

COVID turned us into hermits. We stayed home, worked from home, only going out to get groceries, meds and curbside pickups. We stopped visiting with friends and going out to eat. We stopped going to the library and into stores to shop. We stopped traveling to visit family and friends. Amazon became our one stop shopping source. It was terribly isolating, and we are lucky to still like each other’s company. We have a stack of completed1000 piece puzzles to show how we spent our leisure time together. 

 

While we are not immune from catching the virus, we are now less likely to get it and much less likely to get really sick or die from it  if we do. It is such a relief to know that we can now visit our children and grandchildren and give them hugs. We look forward to having dinner with others, similarly vaccinated, and getting our lives back to some degree of normalcy.

 

While we tried to stay safe and uninfected, we watched with dismay at those who went about their usual lives, unmasked and not socially distanced. Each night, we saw the COVID infections and death rates on TV and understood that those who ignored the scientist’s warnings were the main contributors to the thousands who got infected and died.

 

With the change in presidential leadership and control of Congress, hope for relief was rewarded with the recently passed rescue legislation that will put money in bank accounts and vaccine shots in arms faster than we might have imagined before the last election. The new package will help small businesses survive the remaining months of the pandemic, help states, and local governments deal with vaccine administration and pump millions into the economy. 

 

We are not out of danger just yet. COVID variants pose threats to the unvaccinated and Spring Break antics threaten to super spread them into new surges as the breakers return home. 

 

Anti-vaxxers still peddle nonsense that drives down the numbers of folks willing to roll up their sleeves to get the shots. False freedom states like Texas and others are lifting mask mandates and other restrictions meant solely to keep infections down will contribute to new surges, hospitalizations and unnecessary deaths. Why they do that while failing to speed up vaccinations is a mystery to me. 

 

We need to continue to heed the calls from Dr. Faucci and Dr. Walensky, the new Director of the Centers for Disease Control, to get the vaccine shots as soon as they become available, to continue to wear our masks when going out of our homes, and to maintain respectful social distancing. Those simple measures, when coupled with the accelerating distribution of approved vaccines are our only hope to beat the virus beast. 

 

Even with the moderate side effects I had from the second shot, including chills, aches and a day of super low energy, I will gladly take a booster shot if recommended next year to maintain the protections vaccine science has given me. I will continue to wear my masks when going out and will continue to keep respectful distance from others. I expect that to be part of my new normal for the foreseeable future. 

 

Hopefully, more and more of our citizens will see that these measures work to protect them as well as me and adopt them. One side effect we noticed was that, in this normal, neither of us caught our usual cold or mild version of the flu this winter. Flu infection rates and infant deaths from the flu were the lowest in decades. 

 

I am glad to see that the travel industry is stepping up as well. Cruise lines are adopting mandatory vaccination and negative COVID test results before boarding rules. Federal regulations now require masks on all forms of public transportation. I expect airlines may well give preferential treatment to the vaccinated and will continue to require masks.

 

We are close to 25% of the population having received at least one shot of the vaccine. We need to reach 60 to 70 percent of the population having both shots before herd immunity will kick in. With accelerated manufacturing, distribution and administration of the shots, we can get there by the end of the Summer. 

 

Think then of the possibilities.