As of today I’m officially two weeks post-second dose vaccine (ie: fully vaccinated)! #TeamPfizer
So that’s exciting. In fact, I’m not sure I’ve ever been so excited and/or nervous to get a vaccine. I got both my shots at a small event center in Broomfield. They had things pretty dialed and efficient. Walk in, check in, get your shot, wait 15min, and then you were released to go.
I know it’s not a silver bullet, but it definitely means I’m feeling a little more comfortable out and about in the world. The second dose knocked me out for about 36 hours (including a middle of the night wake up that was pretty miserable, and then a 24hr low grade fever with chills/aches/fatigue). Still, it was kind of reassuring to feel sick but not actually be sick. And all in all it was a tiny price to pay to then feel like I actually had some protection against COVID. Hard to believe we’re over a year past the start of this thing.
Also, after months of wearing masks outside, I’ve finally taking that exciting step of NOT masking outdoors. Not for walks nor for bike rides. It’s been surprisingly delightful to not worry about it. We were masking on all our walks, and I was masking on the bike path anytime I was cycling. I usually throw a mask in my back pocket in case I need it, but it has yet to be an issue.
Still, while some folks are getting vaccinated and feeling a glimmer of hope for returning to normal, hot spots in other areas are exploding. Currently India is losing ~4,000 people a day to COVID, with infection rates extremely high. We are very much not over this pandemic. The images coming out from their field hospitals are heartbreaking. Reminds me of Italy a year ago, and the US a few months ago.
I’m not sure where we’ll go from here on a national or global scale. There’s a lot to come, including figuring out how to help folks get over vaccine hesitancy. However, for me personally I have a lot of hope for a planned trip to Portland in June, and then successful bike races coming up in July, Sept., and Oct. I still have a problem of not quite having a bike for those races, but… that’s a story for another day.
