Vaccine is easier than one would expect

That was far easier than I expected. When we pulled into the almost full parking lot of the local health department we assumed that we had a long wait before my appointment. We were wrong. I have never experienced that kind of efficiency before.

Easy to read signs pointed us in the right direction. Almost before we knew it we were in the waiting room waiting for a timer to go off. Fifteen minutes later we were back in the car and headed home.

I’m talking about getting the COVID vaccine. Everybody was very nice, extremely competent and relaxed. Whoever set things up deserves our heartfelt praise. There wasn’t time to get the  last minute jitters. The people were so efficient that if they had chosen to, and had enough vaccine, they could have vaccinated the entire town in the matter of a few days. 

I am well aware that there are people who shun the shots. That is their right. With all the hullabaloo about what is and isn’t true, I’m surprised that most people, including us, believe that  the vaccine will help. 

I have seen many photographs of people standing in line for hours to get the vaccine. This is the exact opposite of what I experienced. Perhaps those places could take a clue from a small town in Indiana. 

When I was little we lined up at the courthouse to get our polio shots. I had heard that there was an oral vaccine that would offer the same protection as the shot. Alas, all of us in line were doomed to get stabbed. I would guess that the majority of the kids in school were in that line.

At the time polio was the scourge of the day. My mom married the guy down the street when I was 14 or 15. Harvey had polio when he was a child. He dealt with the effects for the rest of his life.

The first time I saw him without a shirt I was surprised. He was washing up in the kitchen sink after work. His bad side looked like a normal man. His good side looked like he went to the gym every day. I doubt if he ever stepped foot in a gym. Hard work had shaped his body. Polio had left its mark.

These days  one rarely knows anyone who has had polio. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, in the 1940s polio disabled in excess of 35,000 people each year. There have been no cases of polio that have originated in our country since 1979. This didn’t prevent people from other countries inadvertently bringing the disease in. The last time this occurred was in 1993. 

My mom was extremely hard of hearing. She also had some comprehension problems. She said that she had measles as a child and that adversely affected her hearing, 

Mom and Harvey had diseases that today are mostly wiped out because of vaccines. We may be afraid of the current push to vaccinate as many people as possible but my mom and step-dad are examples of what happens when vaccines aren’t available. 

Do we really want to take a chance on our children having to deal with side effects from COVID?  Do we really want to subject our kids to having to take care of us if we have side effects years after we opted to not get the shot?

The process of getting vaccinated is quite easy. If you won’t do it for yourself, then do it for the people who will have to take care of you. Do it for those you love.