Vaccine or Virus?
ReeNoun
Vaccine or Virus?
I won’t lie. It was scary. I pulled into the parking garage of a hockey stadium that no longer existed. There were men and women dressed in medical PPE of all colors. They looked alien-like with their masks on with only their eyes visible. I signed up for this and I wasn’t going to back out now. A dark-skinned man with kind eyes approached me with a cart. He verified my name, address, and age. Then, he verified that my forms had been signed and filled out correctly before finally asking me, “Which arm?”
“Don’t I have to do the left because I’m on the driver’s side?” I asked.
“No, you can just turn the right shoulder toward me,” he said, stating what seemed rather obvious to me now. I felt a bit stupid, but I wasn’t the one administering injections. So, I removed my sweater (I had on a tank top underneath in preparation for this moment) and turned my right shoulder toward the open window of my driver’s side car door. He took out the syringe and I looked away. He pinched the flesh of my arm after he had swabbed it first with alcohol and gave me the first of a my COVID-19 vaccine shots.
He told me what to do if I started to exhibit symptoms and then walked away, heading to the car parked behind me. As I sat in my SUV alone waiting the recommended 15 minutes. I tried to concentrate on good things. Truthfully, I was scared that I would become a part of the small percentage of people who had allergic reactions and possibly die as a result.
“But you’re not allergic to anything.” I told myself aloud more than once. I’m not. I can pet dogs and cats and smell a whole garden in spring time without so much as a watery eye or a running nose. I have no known food allergies either, so there was really no reason to think that I would be one of those people. As the thoughts came and went, the 15 minutes were spent and the taillights of the car in front of me illuminated because their engine had started. I waited until I was told, before I started mine.
Update: I am fine.
I wrote this next part in August 2020, having only dreamed of this day:
If I remember the aforementioned statement, I should be just fine. Well, if I remember that, my mask, latex gloves, hand sanitizer, face shield/googles, disinfectant spray and to keep 6 feet away from everyone at all times. Thank God, I tested negative for COVID-19 last month. I pray that I am still dodging the sometimes fatal infected droplets that have killed more than half a million people worldwide. In my wildest dreams, I never imagine that THIS would happen. By now, most of us are over the initial shock and the mental havoc the virus caused. Most of us are okay. Just being more careful and staying safe. But some of us aren’t okay.