BECAUSE I no longer work as a nurse (I haven’t really been doing Nursing since 2014, except for a brief four-month stint as a mental health nurse at a prison in Maryland), I was afraid I wasn’t getting the vaccine sooner than mid-2021.
If I’m not a frontliner, I’m not going to use my nursing license to cut through the line!
I got my morals.
Although, I must admit that I was tempted by desperation at one time.
***
After the frontliners, there was the whole population of the vulnerable elderly.
I maybe 52, but I still qualify as Very Healthy, thank you very much!
So I’m not going ahead of the line if my 70-year-old neighbor hasn’t gotten her shots yet.
***
My desperation was, of course, triggered by the short supply of the vaccine in Maryland in February.
Maryland is a small state, with some money, so it was frustrating that the vaccination process wasn’t going speedy enough.
I mean, my sister-in-law, a Maryland nurse, had completed her two Pfizer shots in December!
***
My sister in Los Angeles completed her shots in February.
And so did my sister in the UK in March.
Both are practicing nurses.
My eligible nephews and nieces got their shots around the same time as I.
I think we were all lumped in the 18-and-above category.
***
I got my first Pfizer shot on March 29, and my second on April 19.
I wanted the vaccine even before it was made available to me.
I wanted it desperately.
I was even tempted to lie, and cut through the line, to get it.
So I cannot understand why some people don’t want it.
And I swear to God, I’m praying that the COVID threat becomes more real to them.
***
Here’s the thing:
The vaccines will protect you more than 90% of the time.
You may still catch COVID, but it will save you a staycation in the ICU bed.
As for the side effects, the benefits will always outweigh the risks.
I mean, do you even believe in science?
Do you even read?
***
Here’s a crazy thought I have been holding since May last year when I realized that at least two million Filipinos should have been infected, and were not!
It’s a fantastical idea, ridiculous even, but let me be!
COVID is a respiratory problem.
TB is a respiratory problem.
BCG vaccines against tuberculosis were given to most Filipinos.
So maybe, just maybe, the BCG vaccine helped Filipinos cope with COVID.
And that’s why not many Filipinos are dead as yet.
***
I mean, you cannot just deny you don’t have COVID.
If you haven’t been tested, how do you know that you don’t have it?
What if you have it, but you are just not showing symptoms?
And what if you have the symptoms, and you are just denying it?
***
So anyway, I understand that because we are an archipelago, compared to continental USA, the spread of COVID can be slower in the Philippines.
But because BCG vaccines were not given to Americans, compared to most Filipinos, I felt it was also a reason why America had more cases of COVID death and infection than the Philippines.
***
Still, I’m proud of America post-Donald Trump for how it handled the pandemic.
Vaccines are now available for Americans, whether they want it or not.
And for those “privileged people” who don’t want it, I hope something happens to make them realize their mistake.
I don’t pray that they will catch a deadly strain of COVID, but hey, if that’s the only way…
***
Why am I a vaccine guy?
Because I love science.
I’m a science believer.
If God wants to end the pandemic, God will send the vaccine to do the job.
Only idiots will believe that God will send Jesus Christ one more time to save us from this pandemic.
Or send the Holy Ghost. Or the ghost of Jesus Christ!
***
Sure, the vaccines are all “emergency use” at this time, but they have certain clinical studies to back them up.
And if only five people out of a million vaccinated people die, that is all good to me.
And if only 1,000 out of a million vaccinated still get sick with COVID, that is all good to me.
***
Some people dying, whether because of COVID or the vaccine or their plain stupidity to refuse the vaccine, that is all good to me.
I mean, I don’t think God would want everybody saved if some of them are so stupid.
Why would God want to save stupid people?
I don’t want to be with stupid people in heaven!
***
Experts say 70% of the population have to be immune to the COVIDd virus to achieve herd immunity.
That is to say, to render the virus less contagious.
(And maybe less virulent or deadly.)
Herd immunity is achieved through people getting infected and recovering (and developing antibodies), and…
Via vaccinations!
Yes, by getting your vaccine shots, you protect yourself (by developing your own antibodies), and others…
By preventing the spread of the virus.
***
Why is it important to stop the spread of the virus NOW?
Why is it important to get your vaccines NOW?
Because if we cannot stop this now, you are giving the virus a chance to mutate as they continue to spread.
And such mutations may, and can, render the current vaccines ineffective.
(Not likely with higher efficacy vaccines, but still possible.)
***
So, if the vaccines are available to you, and you still refuse it, God help you.
Because I know that I won’t!
“Mirese” and “gaba” are words that I haven’t used in a while.
I’ll be happy to say them to you when you are in that ICU bed attached to a ventilator!/PN
