Fully vaccinated, but…

Today I had my second jab of the Pfizer Covid-19 vaccination, so I’m now fully vaccinated. The photo above is my selfie after my jab. When I shared that to Instagram (and so, Facebook), I said:

Second Covid vaccine jab done! Process was VERY fast! Glad to take responsibility for protecting myself, my whānau, and my community, both in Kirikiriroa/Hamilton and all of Aotearoa New Zealand, too. Also very relieved, tbh. Took a long time to get the jab, but just glad to get it at all when so many people in the world haven’t. Onward!

I was extraordinarily fast, too. I arrived early, at 3:24pm, and got my jab about 10 minutes later, and then left 20 minutes after that (there’s a mandatory 20 minute post-jab waiting time). So, I was all done in maybe half an hour—a fraction of the amount of time that the first jab took.

Right after I sat down in the observation area, I posted to my personal Facebook:

That was FAST! All jabbed and now in the observation area—MAYBE ten minutes (probably less) all up from arriving to sitting down after. All staff friendly and helpful, just like for jab one. Awesomeness!

And it truly was an awesome experience! Afterwards, I went to the foodcourt for an early dinner—a very disappointing beef burrito. When I left, I tried various backroads to help me avoid the rush hour traffic when heading home. It took a few different tries to find the road that went through, but I got found the route, and ig I’m heading home between say 3:30 and 6pm, it’ll save me a lot of time. I’ve been meaning to work out an alternative route for awhile now, and this afternoon I thought, “why not?”.

I symbolically brought Nigel with me…

However, on my way to my vaccination appointment, I was listening to the radio and they mentioned that there was a case of Covid-19 in Auckland, and that the Prime Minister would be holding a press conference around 6pm. “Uh, oh!” was my first thought, because last week that the Government announced, “It is more likely that we would end up with a short, sharp move to Covid-19 alert level 4 for either the affected area or the whole country, depending on the circumstances, in the event that we saw a case of Covid-19 emerge.” I knew what was coming.

As I drove, I thought I should go over to the supermarket after my jab—isn’t that everyone’s first thought when a lockdown may be imminent? But I immediately realised I’d done my big shop the end of last week, and I had enough to last maybe two weeks without re-stocking. That’s how I had the time to take that little side-road adventure—though a thought did pop into my head about that, namely, that it would probably be the last time I’d be able to drive anywhere far from home for awhile.

I summed up where I’m at with all this on my personal Facebook before the press conference was held:

I’m actually okay about all this, apart from the fact my dental hygienist appointment on Thursday may have to be rescheduled, and it can take months to get one. Other than that, I’m okay (for now) if we go under lockdown…

Here’s what I do worry about: Nigel’s Birthday is in ten days. I’d really rather not have to be alone on that day, but if that’s the case, I’ll cope. My appointment with the cardiologist is two weeks from today. If it needs to be rescheduled, it could be many months before I can get another one. Other than those two things, I’m good.

So, right now, I’m perfectly okay with the situation, one we all knew would happen sooner or later, and it was 170 days since our last case of Covid in the community, maybe it was inevitably going to be sooner? I certainly have things to keep me busy for the next three days, or even longer if it comes to that. Had this happened last year at this time, it would probably have been a different story, but a lot has happened since then.

As so many people have been saying, we’ve been through this, we’ve done it before, and we can do it this time, too. The last thing we want is a raging outbreak like Sydney has, and, with luck, this short, sharp lockdown will stop this from getting out of control. We hope!

Because of the lockdown, the Government temporarily suspended the Covid vaccination programme, and will announce more about that tomorrow. Which makes me doubly lucky that I got my second jab today. If my appointment had been tomorrow, I would’ve been so disappointed about getting so close to the finish line and missing out. That probably would have upset me more than being locked down again.

Still, like everyone else, I really hope this will be short.