Copyright Staten Island Advance
I got my recent COVID shot on the next to last Monday in September. I felt like a member of the Resistance. Our current Secretary of Health and Human Services had stated he did not think the vaccine was safe and had killed more people than COVID had. This is, indisputably, not the truth. In fact, it is estimated that the vaccine saved more than 20 million lives. Seemed like a good roll of the dice to me, even though friends begged me not to. Here are some more reasons: I’m 75 and I have a compromised immune system, including allergies that get quite severe sometimes. I can’t take the risk of getting COVID again, nor transmitting it to my partner, who lives with diabetes, nor my grandchild of four. Folks have commented “Well, you got the vaccine, but you got COVID anyway.” Yes…but I neither required hospitalization for nor died from it. You get a flu shot every year and can still get the flu. Luckily for all of us, Gov. Kathy Hochul signed an extension allowing all New Yorkers access to the vaccine for 30 days. Originally, HHS stated you needed a doctor’s note to get one, which became a good rebuttal to those who warned it would kill me. “Well, if my doctor thinks it’s safe…” Actually, I would have with or without my doctors approval because I actually believe in science and I’m still here to write about it. About an hour in, I began to feel a bit dizzy and had trouble focusing. My tinnitus went up an octave and I felt a bit congested. I hung on until 4:30, then crashed for two and a half hours. When I woke up, I took a shower, put on my track suit and headed downstairs for a bowl of the delicious vegetable soup Joan had made. You have to watch what you eat when you feel yucky, otherwise every sweet or salty thing in your house will disappear and you’ll have to Instacart in some more. We watched some cable TV, I stayed up to watch Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert trumpet Jimmy Kimmel’s return the next day (supposedly the day of the Rapture, but, if you’re reading this, guess which one didn’t happen?) and then took a non CBD melatonin gummy to get to sleep. It didn’t work. I woke up several times during the night. The next day, I felt like I was running a cold…congested, runny nose, muscle aches…nothing I didn’t expect. I have spent days in bed due to my allergies, so this was nothing new. I chalked it up as a potato day. I had an early Zoom meeting, then slept till 3 p.m. A shower and a five minute sit on the back deck were restorative. Joan and I watched two episodes of The Pitt, our latest binge pick. Joan made a great asparagus pie for dinner and by Friday, I was ready to face the world again. So, some suggestions…if you’re retired like we are, you can pick any two to three day spot in the week to get your shot. Just anticipate that you might be laid up for at least two of those days. If you work, try to get it on the weekend. The side effects of the vaccine slightly mirror the effects of COVID, so a lot of people wrongly assume that the vaccine is making them ill. What I think is happening is the vaccine is doing a system check, finding your weak spots and somehow notating them for future reference. So, your muscles will ache, your nose will run, your vision will be a bit wonky and your hearing may decrease due to congestion. But all of this is truly better than being dead of a virus we will never be free from. Doctors tell you to take Advil or Aleve for the pain but, because I have Barrett’s Esophagus, I am limited to Tylenol, which I avoided this time because, you know, it causes autism. No, it doesn’t. There is absolutely no medical proof that the two are related. And remember, this is a theory proposed by the same guy who didn’t want to grant you access to the vaccine in the first place. His opinion is, to put it mildly, questionable. And this is another reason that I think that anybody who wants the vaccine should have it. Folks older than 65 and children younger than six months, along with people with pre-existing medical conditions (say those undergoing cancer treatment) are the most at risk for getting COVID. But they are not the only people who can be affected by the disease. During the epidemic, thousands of people stated that school age children were not at risk and therefore schools didn’t need to be shut down. Turns out, no, they are at the same risk as older people. And, least we forget, there are teachers and education staff 65 years and older, who, if they contract the disease, risk dying from it. In fact, an entire school community is at risk once COVID has infected even one person. That’s why the schools were shut down. Not even extrapolating to teachers bringing the virus home to their kids, kids bringing the virus home to their parents and grandparents. Over all, it was a very necessary precaution to stop the spread of the disease and it worked. But preaching “herd immunity” is going to lead to some deaths the same way refusing to restrict attack weapons will also result in the loss of life. Am I trying to convince anybody to take the vaccine? No. I believe it is every person’s right to respond to this virus in the way they see fit. But I also believe that not taking the vaccine puts more than yourself at risk and as a teacher and a parent, I cannot condone that. I’m sure this administration will continue to come up with other scientifically unsound theories. Remember, they wanted you to drink bleach and shine a light up your nether parts, both proven to do absolutely nothing to stop COVID from spreading. Along with attacks on health care and this recent attempt to prevent access to the vaccine, it’s almost like they don’t really care who lives and dies at this point. And that is a very sorry state of affairs. Do what you think is best. Stay strong. Drink water. Try to get exercise and fresh air. We’re headed towards winter and that will drive a lot of us indoors. But, meanwhile, take the best care of yourself that you can. And hold those magnificent grey heads high!
