I'm Vaccinated!

      I wrote in my daily journal a year ago that the number of Covid cases had risen in the past month here in Michigan from 3,000 to 37,798. That seemed like a lot in April of 2020. Yesterday the case total reached 825,844. It shows you how much can change in a month or a year.

     A month ago I blogged on how difficult it was to get a Covid vaccination for my wife Wendy who turns 65 in a little over a month. Now you can just walk in to many vaccination sites to get your shot, no appointment needed. In Detroit, the city is even offering $50 to people who will drive residents to get their vaccination. My wife is scheduled to get her second shot of Pfizer next week but I doubt they're going to pay me to drive her to the vaccination site.

     I hear other states are offering free beer, doughnuts, even free pot to those who get the shot. Man, if we could have only have held out a little longer. Again, what a difference a month makes.

      My own vaccination experience went smoothly. I even had a nice view of the Michigan football field from the clinic that was located in the Big House itself. 

      The only surprise was reading literature that they provided to me after I got my shot. In there it stated that the Pfizer vaccination I got has not yet been approved by the Food and Drug Administration. What?? Does Dr. Fauci know that?

     At least it wasn't the Johnson & Johnson vaccine that I got. Coincidentally, Wendy actually signed up to receive the J&J one-and-done shot. The morning we were going to leave to get the shot, the news came out that the CDC was going to pause that particular brand because of side effects. So . . . what about my wife's shot then? There was nothing on the Washtenaw County Health Department's web page even though another patient asked that very question on their Facebook link—“what if I were already scheduled for the J&J shot?"

     Luckily, before we left Wendy got an e-mail saying that she would be getting the Pfizer shot instead. Now with just one more hoop to go before we're both fully vaccinated, I'm hoping there won't be any more twists. Then again, on the Washtenaw County Health Department website, they report that the clinic where Wendy received her first shot is now giving out the Moderna vaccine, not the Pfizer.

     It's a fairly long drive to this clinic so now I'm a little hesitant to go unless we're sure Wendy's going to get the shot she is supposed to get. Maybe that's what they mean by vaccine hesitancy.

     With my having been vaccinated, I've gone back to working out at the rec center which is a good thing since I need to lose five pounds today for my doctors' visit tomorrow. And I shop more frequently and with less trepidation. I'm vaccinated after all.

     But today I was taking a walk outdoors, maskless since I'm outdoors and vaccinated, when I ran into students coming out of school at the end of their day. I was surprised that they all still wore their masks even though they left their school a block or so behind them. When they encountered me walking towards them maskless, they circled widely around me, making me feel like I was a venomous spitting cobra or something. I halfway expected a student to brandish a makeshift cross at me as if I were a vampire.

     Guess I need to get a t-shirt that says, “Chill. I've been vaccinated.”