Shots Fired (The Coronavirus Diaries, Part XV)
Yesterday, M and I got our first coronavirus vaccine shots. In a detail that I hope proves to be totally irrelevant twenty years from now, we got the Pfizer vaccine, which means we are scheduled for a second shot in mid-April.
Saturday was just about the first day we personally we were eligible. Ohio, like most states, has had a tiered system for vaccines, with the elderly and medical personnel being first in line. Over time, the bar has gradually been lowered, until earlier this week the age range finally encompassed us. A large scale mass vaccination center was set up at the Wolstein Center, which is a large concert venue (remember concerts?) downtown. Rather than deal with crowds and potential traffic situation, M decided to look for pharmacy locations in the much smaller cities to the west of us. After initially signing us up for the single-shot Johnson & Johnson vaccine she decided that she was happier getting the Pfizer vaccine a few days earlier, especially as it appears to be more effective against most variants of COVID. A side effect was that we also got signed up for pharmacy reward programs at every major chain in the nearby area, and I'll probably be unsubscribing from emails for a few weeks, but as trade-offs go that one is more than acceptable.
We drove a little more than an hour to Fremont (home of the Rutherford B. Hayes Presidential Center, which we did not see, and the world's largest Ketchup Factory, which I believe we drove by) on Saturday. Unlike our previous trip to Fremont, we did not stay overnight. Instead we arrived at the CVS on time, got our shots more or less immediately from some young twenty-somethings who looked like they were probably pharmacy or nursing students, collected our vaccination records, waited the requisite fifteen minutes to check for an adverse reaction, and then drove back home. There was no line (although there were a few people at the tail end of their their own fifteen minute waiting period when we arrived), and no fuss. We already have our followup scheduled at the same pharmacy.
Given the length of the trip we packed up the diaper bag for the first time ever, but Birdie slept almost all of the way to Fremont, slept in our arms while we took turns getting the shot, and then slept all the way home. We never even took her out of the car, let alone opened the diaper bag.
Speaking of shots and Birdie, last Monday Birdie had her two month checkup at the pediatrician's office. I am pleased to say that she is in perfect health. Unfortunately, as of this writing there is no coronavirus vaccine that has been approved for infants, but not to be left out, she got her first four vaccines, one orally and three by shot. She was comparatively unfazed by the experience, considering that one of the very few other humans she has ever met in person jabbed her with sharp pieces of metal.
While it was exciting to step into a non-medical commercial establishment for the first time this year (and I think for me the first time since my picking up my bike from my crash in early October), and having a shot is a big step forward, this doesn't actually change any of our short term plans. While one shot gives dramatically better resistance than no shot, it's not as good as two shots, and of course, we have a newborn who can't get vaccinated any time soon. We're still stuck at home (my work has said they won't even start the discussion about bringing people back into the office until late April at earliest) for the duration. On the plus side, both sets of grandparents have gotten both rounds of shots, so hopefully in April or May we can see them finally.
Addendum: M's arm is very sore. Mine is barely sore, as in I'd assumed I'd slept on it funny if I didn't know I'd gotten a shot.
Saturday was just about the first day we personally we were eligible. Ohio, like most states, has had a tiered system for vaccines, with the elderly and medical personnel being first in line. Over time, the bar has gradually been lowered, until earlier this week the age range finally encompassed us. A large scale mass vaccination center was set up at the Wolstein Center, which is a large concert venue (remember concerts?) downtown. Rather than deal with crowds and potential traffic situation, M decided to look for pharmacy locations in the much smaller cities to the west of us. After initially signing us up for the single-shot Johnson & Johnson vaccine she decided that she was happier getting the Pfizer vaccine a few days earlier, especially as it appears to be more effective against most variants of COVID. A side effect was that we also got signed up for pharmacy reward programs at every major chain in the nearby area, and I'll probably be unsubscribing from emails for a few weeks, but as trade-offs go that one is more than acceptable.
We drove a little more than an hour to Fremont (home of the Rutherford B. Hayes Presidential Center, which we did not see, and the world's largest Ketchup Factory, which I believe we drove by) on Saturday. Unlike our previous trip to Fremont, we did not stay overnight. Instead we arrived at the CVS on time, got our shots more or less immediately from some young twenty-somethings who looked like they were probably pharmacy or nursing students, collected our vaccination records, waited the requisite fifteen minutes to check for an adverse reaction, and then drove back home. There was no line (although there were a few people at the tail end of their their own fifteen minute waiting period when we arrived), and no fuss. We already have our followup scheduled at the same pharmacy.
Given the length of the trip we packed up the diaper bag for the first time ever, but Birdie slept almost all of the way to Fremont, slept in our arms while we took turns getting the shot, and then slept all the way home. We never even took her out of the car, let alone opened the diaper bag.
Speaking of shots and Birdie, last Monday Birdie had her two month checkup at the pediatrician's office. I am pleased to say that she is in perfect health. Unfortunately, as of this writing there is no coronavirus vaccine that has been approved for infants, but not to be left out, she got her first four vaccines, one orally and three by shot. She was comparatively unfazed by the experience, considering that one of the very few other humans she has ever met in person jabbed her with sharp pieces of metal.
While it was exciting to step into a non-medical commercial establishment for the first time this year (and I think for me the first time since my picking up my bike from my crash in early October), and having a shot is a big step forward, this doesn't actually change any of our short term plans. While one shot gives dramatically better resistance than no shot, it's not as good as two shots, and of course, we have a newborn who can't get vaccinated any time soon. We're still stuck at home (my work has said they won't even start the discussion about bringing people back into the office until late April at earliest) for the duration. On the plus side, both sets of grandparents have gotten both rounds of shots, so hopefully in April or May we can see them finally.
Addendum: M's arm is very sore. Mine is barely sore, as in I'd assumed I'd slept on it funny if I didn't know I'd gotten a shot.