Vaccinated

Five hours ago I received my second COVID vaccine shot. I’m very happy to have that out of the way even though I won’t be surprised if I have to get a booster at some point down the road.

As glad as I am to see the U.S. finally turning some sort of corner on this, I know that large portions of the world have a very long way to go. Right now it’s Brazil, India, and Ontario facing big outbreaks, but I doubt they’ll be the last ones. And, as we’ve seen, the more people who get sick with this thing the more chances for the virus to mutate and create a variant. The more variants over time the more likely one is to escape the vaccines.

So, there’s hope, but we’re not in the clear by a long shot. I’m loosening up some but even vaccinated I probably won’t go “back to normal” for quite a while yet.

(Not that I was a raging socialite before this, but I’m sure I’ll still be asking myself, “Do you really need to run up to the store for THAT?” for quite a while yet. I’m one of the fortunate ones that doesn’t really crave human contact so it’s not a hardship for me to play it safe for a while longer.)

Unfortunately at this point at least in the U.S. I think we’ll see a lot of people get sick or die that really truly did not have to. I hope it won’t be people I love, but there are people I love who aren’t getting the vaccine, which means that selfishly I want everyone else to get the vaccine so that those people I love are protected from their own bad choices. But, well, not gonna happen is it?

(My A/C guy came by last week and was all about how this whole thing is a giant hoax and the vaccines will give you cancer and all sorts of other crazy shit that makes me realize that we do in fact live in different realities. When the threats are nebulous and just over the horizon it’s amazing how differently people can perceive them.)

Anyway. All I can do is my part. And remind others to do theirs. So, get vaccinated and try not to share air droplets with a bunch of strangers until you do.