Day 413: Two down, one (me) to go

[eve_prime]

J&D got their second Pfizer vaccine today. Last time they waited in long lines (in the car) for quite a while, but today they were home again in an hour, which is impressive given the distance (almost 20 minutes each way) and the 15 minutes of post-vaccine waiting. Maybe there was very little traffic there and back. So far they both feel fine, other than the arm-soreness. I hope I get that outcome too.

Meanwhile, however, my friend and colleague JA posted this to Facebook today:

"Just a word of caution. I’ve been fully vaccinated, with Pfizer, and have been for six weeks. Wednesday night, ten days ago I woke up freezing. By morning my temp was 101.5. Yes, I got Covid. Symptoms were a five day fever, headache, difficulty breathing, shortness of breath, and loss of smell ( and hence taste). I’m feeling much better now, although tire easily, and take naps often. The worse is that wine tastes AWFUL! Yup, all those wonderful flavors taste like vinegar. I’m sharing this, because Gary and I have been extremely cautious over the past year. No eating out, no going into flush bathrooms (outhouses on the road), no seeing friends inside their or our house, shopping only when stores “look” safe, Costco early mornings, etc. We were still being cautious after being fully vaccinated, but not as much. On Monday, we had vaccinated friends over for dinner (inside) and enjoyed a long conversation maskless. On Tuesday, we went to lunch on the Oregon Coast and sat outside. I used the bathroom inside, the one that Gary had just commented on “wasn’t well ventilated”. We did some shopping, but with masks on and keeping our social distance. On Wednesday night, I was sick. How did I catch COVID? I don’t know. I “thought” i was being careful. Evidently I wasn’t. Oregon is having a surge of COVID right now, as we had relatively few cases before. The prevalence of the British variant, which is more easily transmissible, is high. I’m writing this not to complain (I feel better daily), but asking you to please stay safe. Stay cautious. If you aren’t vaccinated, please do get vaccinated. The vaccine definitely helped the severity of the illness."