I really didn’t want to be in the first wave.
I was OK with this. Mainly because I really believed there were other professions that should be ahead of mine, but also because I was nervous. I’ve been running my mouth for a while now about how absurd it is that there are so many people, from our neighbors to the highest levels of government, that will believe some of the most absolutely ridiculous things from the most dubious of sources but think that somebody that has dedicated their entire life to studying a subject is lying to them and yet when the scientists and doctors told me that it was safe to be injected with something I hesitated.
I hesitated and am only slightly embarrassed to say that I wanted to see what was going to happen to those that went before me. I wasn’t worried about Bill Gates implanting a microchip in my arm but it did seem awfully fast, there was talk I didn’t understand about DNA alteration and sometimes it takes a while before the full side effect profile of something can be determined.
For the record, the vaccine doesn’t actually enter the nucleus of a cell where that DNA is. I’m taking the word of scientists who study these things when I say that, however. I’m sure that if I did some “research” I could find somebody somewhere that has some sort of proof to the contrary.
I got the shot because I think that there are people that know more than me about these things and they say it’s safe. As of January 11, there have been approximately 30 million people already vaccinated. I’ve seen the same Facebook posts you have about the Doctor in Florida that died soon after he got his and a few other severe allergic reactions but it seems that there have been very few.
I can understand the premise of ideas like “live a healthy lifestyle and build up your immune system instead” but I also think it’s OK to admit that sometimes maybe that isn’t good enough and that mother nature or God or whoever you are afraid of offending will understand why you choose to take additional measures. There are reasons why people live longer than they used to and those reasons are science and medicine. These are good things.
There is also a reason why the life expectancy in this country dropped this past year to its lowest levels since 2003.
I got the shot because I’m starting to think that wishing this thing away isn’t going to work. It’s been almost an entire year now and I think that most of us will agree that this sucks. Because of how contagious the virus is the estimates are anywhere between 70-95% of the population that would need antibodies before we reached true herd immunity, that point where there aren’t enough suitable hosts for the disease to continue to spread. 20-25% of the population is estimated to have already had it to this point with well over 2 million deaths. That’s a lot more people before we got there naturally, if such a thing would even be possible.
Right now we have another 3% vaccinated, myself included.
My daughter has only been in school for a few weeks total over the past year so I’m aware that even fourth grade math can be a bit challenging to me but it seems clear that the only way to get out of this is if as many people as possible believe the science and roll up their sleeves.
I didn’t want to be in that first 3% but I’m glad that I was and that it’s behind me. If we are ever going to put this pandemic nightmare behind all of us it’s going to take a lot more people to do the same.
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Previously Published on Thirsty Daddy and is republished on Medium.
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Photo credit: Author
