Yesterday my wife and I got our vaccine shots. The local medical authorities have been dispensing the Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine, and we went for ours at the regional hospital. I must say that it was extremely well organized, efficient, and a most cordial experience for us. Our second shot is scheduled for February 12th.
Ten months of this pandemic has somehow changed our world, our expectations, and our confidence in the future. Finally getting the vaccine was a surreal experience in some ways. Let’s face it; none of us have ever experienced anything like this: the omnipresent threat, the stress, the confinement, the breaking down of routine, sense of hopelessness, and, perhaps, an acceptance of our fate. This may not be the case for everyone, but for me this sums things up.
Personally, a sense of relief came over me to get the first of the two shots, and I was grateful to all who helped bring that about. It was like the future had been restored along with the predictability that things will be okay. Others have reported the same sentiments to me about their thoughts.
The actual experience of going to the hospital and waiting patiently with about one hundred strangers was especially interesting.
It was immediately clear that we were all in this together and that we represented the diverse demographic of our community. While all of us were 65 and older, our differences from one another stood out as to affluence, race and health. I especially enjoyed the “people watching,” appreciating the richness of our human race. In short, it was a leveling experience and ideally illustrative of American democracy.
I’m so happy that you and Betty have gotten your first shot! Harvey and I felt the same emotions you describe when we were able to get the first one and we are eagerly anticipating our second dose on February 9th. Life is looking brighter every day.
Thanks Barbara. We may not be out of the woods yet but it sure felt good to be heading in the right direction!
You summed up my feelings totally. I felt like a ton of bricks had been lifted off the shoulders of so many. I was reminded of the polio vaccine taken on a lump of sugar for three consecutive Sundays. If memory serves me, it was not optional. If it was there was no question about the family lining up for it. At any rate, our world is hopefully settling down and getting back to normal.Glad you have taken it – I can’t wait to hug you again!!
Damn, I can’t wait either!
What a contrast to the scrum I’ve been in for a month here, where I live in South Florida. Unless you had a hard time signing up, Robert, did you? I got an email on Dec. 23 from my fine local hospital in Miami Beach, Mt. Sinai, saying that as a recorded patient of the hospital and a patient of doctors in practices associated with Mt. Sinai, I was eligible to sign up for the over-65 group next in line for the vaccine. Ha, the signup website never accepted my many applications over several weeks. I asked my primary care doctor’s practice for help, and a week later came a reservation for first shot at Mt. Sinai on Feb. 23 — wow, so long to wait? Why?
Rather than just wait, I tried to sign up through three other big hospitals, but unless one hit their websites in the first seconds they went live, you’d be told that all reservations were taken, try again as often as you can, Sucker, and maybe you’ll get lucky. Then the county health systems started signing people up, and their websites were equally impossible to catch in a weak moment. Or if you managed to start an application, it would gum up on the last entries. Today I had one new possibility turn me down after the last keystroke on grounds I already had a date for the first shot. This could only be the one for Feb. 23 at Mt. Sinai that I had for a few days until they told me and thousands of others on their calendar that there was no more vaccine, and all dates were null and void.
As someone in Key West said, It’s video games for senior citizens. The black comedy is enhanced by news of the man who got his first shot one day and in a few hours became ill with Covid-19 and died a week later. Too bad that his shot was a waste.