I am approaching the fourteen day mark since I received my first vaccine dose. By most accounts, my body has now built up whatever immunity I should have received after just a single shot. Some fourteen months after the pandemic started, I now have some fairly good protection against the virus. While I do feel some relief, I haven’t changed a whole lot of my behaviour in terms of safety protocols. I understand I have received only one dose of the AZ vaccine. I need two doses to be considered fully vaccinated and protected. At this point, I am not even sure if my second dose of the vaccine will be AZ. In any case, since I am not fully vaccinated, there’s still a chance I can still get sick. There are documented cases where fully vaccinated people got sick and died. That’s just the reality of how viruses and vaccines work. Not everything is perfect. Until everyone is fully vaccinated (or at least as close to everyone as possible) and positive cases are down to more manageable numbers, it’s important to me to keep doing what I’ve been doing.
I guess the only thing that has changed is the slight sense of relief I’ve experienced that I mentioned before. Both my parents have had their first shot and so have I, so now I feel much more comfortable being around them. I also worry less when I’m indoors. I think I’ve been to a mall twice in the last fourteen months. I feel like I could go to a mall now while wearing a mask and I’d be in a safer situation than say a month ago, when I hadn’t had my first shot.
I’m looking forward to being fully vaccinated by the end of the summer!