Blog: I've Been Shot
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I've Been Shot - Friday, May 14, 2021
Yesterday I got my second dose of the Pfizer COVID shot. Slightly worrying is the fact that other than very minor soreness at the site of the injection (and less soreness than last time), I've been feeling no side effects. But according to articles, the severity of side effects is not predictive of vaccine effectiveness, so I'm not stressing out about it. Pretty sure they didn't just run out of vaccines and give me a placebo...
Getting vaccinated felt, well, like a mundane affair. Definitely not life-changing. I recognize how privileged I am to be able to say that. I'm thankful for the wide-scale availability of the vaccine in the US, with basically anybody who wants the vaccine able to get it (and at no cost to them), and with almost half of the population now having gotten at least one dose, and over a third of the population having been fully vaccinated. I am privileged to be able to work from home, to be paid well for it, and to be in a position where the worst part of my day is Zoom fatigue. How many countless people in the world are still suffering greatly because of the pandemic (India comes to mind as of late), how many livelihoods have been affected, lives turned upside down, and how many people are out on the front lines risking their health for the benefit of society and getting paid little for it? Yeah, I'm blessed to live in the US and privileged to be in the position that I am.
One is considered fully vaccinated two weeks after the final dose, according to the CDC. And their guidance is now that fully-vaccinated people don't need to wear masks, either outdoors or indoors (though this guidance doesn't apply to healthcare and public transportation settings). I'm grateful that I'll be effectively protected when hanging out with/being around people, but I'm still a bit skittish and would prefer to continue keeping social distance and wearing a mask when around others. After all, we're still in a pandemic and the US is still seeing around 35k new cases a day. Priscilla thinks I'm too extreme and reminds me that the number of new cases in California is quite low. Maybe she's right. Perhaps a compromise?
As for Priscilla, she's down in LA for 10 days now and her last day of work was yesterday. She's been consistently waking up around 5:30 now (an improvement from 3:30) and has continued being fruitful with her time. She'll be helping her parents organize their finances and hanging out with friends in LA. So I'll have to wing it as a bachelor for the next several days, though she did make me a ton of food (porridge, pulled chicken, scrambled eggs, kale, shrimp, and a huge pot of soup) before she left, so I think I'll survive.
Getting vaccinated felt, well, like a mundane affair. Definitely not life-changing. I recognize how privileged I am to be able to say that. I'm thankful for the wide-scale availability of the vaccine in the US, with basically anybody who wants the vaccine able to get it (and at no cost to them), and with almost half of the population now having gotten at least one dose, and over a third of the population having been fully vaccinated. I am privileged to be able to work from home, to be paid well for it, and to be in a position where the worst part of my day is Zoom fatigue. How many countless people in the world are still suffering greatly because of the pandemic (India comes to mind as of late), how many livelihoods have been affected, lives turned upside down, and how many people are out on the front lines risking their health for the benefit of society and getting paid little for it? Yeah, I'm blessed to live in the US and privileged to be in the position that I am.
One is considered fully vaccinated two weeks after the final dose, according to the CDC. And their guidance is now that fully-vaccinated people don't need to wear masks, either outdoors or indoors (though this guidance doesn't apply to healthcare and public transportation settings). I'm grateful that I'll be effectively protected when hanging out with/being around people, but I'm still a bit skittish and would prefer to continue keeping social distance and wearing a mask when around others. After all, we're still in a pandemic and the US is still seeing around 35k new cases a day. Priscilla thinks I'm too extreme and reminds me that the number of new cases in California is quite low. Maybe she's right. Perhaps a compromise?
As for Priscilla, she's down in LA for 10 days now and her last day of work was yesterday. She's been consistently waking up around 5:30 now (an improvement from 3:30) and has continued being fruitful with her time. She'll be helping her parents organize their finances and hanging out with friends in LA. So I'll have to wing it as a bachelor for the next several days, though she did make me a ton of food (porridge, pulled chicken, scrambled eggs, kale, shrimp, and a huge pot of soup) before she left, so I think I'll survive.