Happy April 1st. No April Fool's Jokes from me today.
Last
week, I got my second covid shot. Whew! My husband got his almost two months
ago. Since his health is not that good, I was very glad he was vaccinated. But
I was sweating mine. Couldn’t wait to be protected. Besides the health concerns,
I wanted/needed to hug my grandchildren.
When the announcement came last fall about a possible vaccine, my first thought was safety. Would the “government” force the drug makers into rushing the vaccine? Would the vaccine be safe? Would it be effective?
While
pondering this, I asked my go-to, favorite doctor (and family member) about the
vaccine. He had been actively researching the whole situation since the beginning. He looked at the
science. When he said we could trust the vaccine—and was first in line to get
his—I was reassured.
Now comes the weird thoughts. Oh, I had them from the beginning because—well, I am a writer with an active imagination. We’ve all read paranormal and/or science fiction adventures about how a much-needed inoculation caused unexpected side effects. Like making all men (or females) sterile, so they had to go outside their planet searching for mates to repopulate the planet. And, of course, they came to Earth in search of that mate.
Or,
the inoculation caused paranormal talents to emerge. Like telepathy (communicating
with others via the mind) or telekinesis (moving objects with the mind), pyrokinesis
(controlling fire). What about psychometry (reading info from an object by
touch)? Or bilocation (being in 2 places at once). That’s one busy people could
use. Astral projection (separating mind and body in order to travel far distances
with the mind only).
Wow.
Wouldn’t some of those be cool!
I’ll
bet you’ve had some weird ideas, too. After all, we are writers. We have very
active imaginations.
While waiting for my vaccine, I read or heard on the news that an amazing number of people weren’t getting the vaccine. With the virus killing over half a million Americans, why would people not get something to prevent it (or at least make it non-fatal)? Are they operating out of fear, distrust, or, in general, not getting preventive medicine?
Some
people won’t go to the doctor for regular (preventive) checkups. If it ain’t
broke, don’t fix it. They don’t take meds unless it’s critical. Men, in
particular, are notorious for dismissing pain or other symptoms until,
sometimes, it’s too late.
Distrust
of the government. I’m a product of the 1960s, the generation that started
questioning the Establishment. They didn’t always tell us the
truth. Okay, they lied. I don’t need to give examples. That distrust carries
over to today.
Some
people don’t get flu shots because they think they’ll get the flu, then they apply
that to same reasoning to covid. According to medical resources, you don’t get
the flu from the flu shot. You might get side effects that are similar but not
the flu. Hubs and I were fortunate that we had no side effects from the covid
vaccine. He got Moderna’s, and I received the one from Pfizer. I drank tons of
water afterward and had no ill effects.
Until
“herd immunity” is established, I’ll wear my mask and stay six feet or
more away from people. But, I’ll get those hugs from my grandkiddies.
