The Plague Diaries: Steven Gets Vaccinated, Stage 1
A while ago, Michigan declared that teachers were Class 1B for COVID vaccines. This means teachers are basically second in line after healthcare workers and seniors. I learned about the health department's vaccine registration web site going live for 1B patients by sheer accident, when a friend mentioned it in passing. When I visited the site, it took me six tries to get registered because the site kept crashing under the pressure.
The web site scheduled my first vaccine for January 22--the day I'm writing this--and my second for February 15. But here's the thing: Wherever Schools decided to start face-to-face instruction for all secondary students on Wednesday, January 20. I was (am) very much against this decision, and feel the schools should remain virtual until at least teachers and staff can be vaccinated. I'm frankly terrified that I'll pick up the virus somewhere--especially at work--and bring it home to Darwin, who is in a highly-elevated risk group. This is a serious, wake-up-sweating-in-the-night kind of fear.
I couldn't see taking the risk.
And so I elected to stay home Wednesday and Thursday, using my personal leave time. And the district grants 10 extra COVID-related sick days. Getting vaccinated falls under those days. So I'd only be losing two days of my own time. Okay, then.
My thinking is that once I get the vaccine on Friday, I'll have the weekend to start building immunity. The Pfizer vaccine has a 50% immunity rate after the first vaccine (though it take several days to get there). So when I go back to the building on Monday, I'll have at least some immunity, and get more every day. I intend to maintain strict protocols in my classroom as well, which will also help.
I don't think my principal was very happy when I told him I'd be out for the first three days of the semester, and I got the impression that substitutes are already difficult to come by, but he didn't fight me about it and he said he understood why I was doing it. I think for a moment he thought I was quitting, which would have made his life really difficult, but that wasn't the case.
Today--Friday--I drove out to the vaccination site, which is the fire station in Holly about 20 minutes away. Signs near the station directed me to go around back, where I found a line of about twenty cars. I joined it, and it moved briskly ahead. When I got close to the front, a masked lady approached the car to get my information and check my ID.
I suddenly realized I hadn't grabbed my wallet when I left. Several frantic moments followed. The woman wasn't sure if I could get vaccinated without showing ID first and was going to find a supervisor to ask, and I wondered if I would have to drive back home and potentially lose my vaccine. Then I remembered that I keep an expired driver's license in the car just in case. I dug around and produced it, and the lady said that would do. Whew!
Then another snag: the lady told me that although I'd been scheduled to get the Pfizer vaccine, the fire house actually got a shipment of Moderna vaccine. This wasn't a big deal, except that the time frame for the second dose was different. I would have to reschedule that by calling the health department after February 1. Well, great. After the Great Web Site Challenge, I didn't think it'd be easy to get through to DHS by phone. But there was nothing for it.
The lady gave me a sheaf of papers with vaccine information printed on them and directed me to drive into the fire house. I was expecting (hoping) that a bunch of hot firemen would descend on my car like the pit crew at a racetrack to give me the vaccine. My hopes were dashed. A roly-poly woman in a tie-dyed mask leaned into the car with a syringe instead. "I have mad skillz," she told me, and poked my arm.
I drove to another parking lot where I needed to wait fifteen minutes under the eye of another set of medical staff to make sure I had no adverse reactions. While I sat there, I did a web search for the efficacy of a single dose of the Moderna vaccine.
Hello! The studies reported that the Moderna vaccine has a whopping 80% immunity rate after the first dose.
Suddenly the snag didn't seem so snaggy anymore.
I drove home after the allotted wait time. Later in the evening, the injection site became sore and I felt a little off, so I took some Tylenol. Now I'm feeling perfectly well.
And . . . 80%. I feel a lot better about returning to work.
comments
The web site scheduled my first vaccine for January 22--the day I'm writing this--and my second for February 15. But here's the thing: Wherever Schools decided to start face-to-face instruction for all secondary students on Wednesday, January 20. I was (am) very much against this decision, and feel the schools should remain virtual until at least teachers and staff can be vaccinated. I'm frankly terrified that I'll pick up the virus somewhere--especially at work--and bring it home to Darwin, who is in a highly-elevated risk group. This is a serious, wake-up-sweating-in-the-night kind of fear.
I couldn't see taking the risk.
And so I elected to stay home Wednesday and Thursday, using my personal leave time. And the district grants 10 extra COVID-related sick days. Getting vaccinated falls under those days. So I'd only be losing two days of my own time. Okay, then.
My thinking is that once I get the vaccine on Friday, I'll have the weekend to start building immunity. The Pfizer vaccine has a 50% immunity rate after the first vaccine (though it take several days to get there). So when I go back to the building on Monday, I'll have at least some immunity, and get more every day. I intend to maintain strict protocols in my classroom as well, which will also help.
I don't think my principal was very happy when I told him I'd be out for the first three days of the semester, and I got the impression that substitutes are already difficult to come by, but he didn't fight me about it and he said he understood why I was doing it. I think for a moment he thought I was quitting, which would have made his life really difficult, but that wasn't the case.
Today--Friday--I drove out to the vaccination site, which is the fire station in Holly about 20 minutes away. Signs near the station directed me to go around back, where I found a line of about twenty cars. I joined it, and it moved briskly ahead. When I got close to the front, a masked lady approached the car to get my information and check my ID.
I suddenly realized I hadn't grabbed my wallet when I left. Several frantic moments followed. The woman wasn't sure if I could get vaccinated without showing ID first and was going to find a supervisor to ask, and I wondered if I would have to drive back home and potentially lose my vaccine. Then I remembered that I keep an expired driver's license in the car just in case. I dug around and produced it, and the lady said that would do. Whew!
Then another snag: the lady told me that although I'd been scheduled to get the Pfizer vaccine, the fire house actually got a shipment of Moderna vaccine. This wasn't a big deal, except that the time frame for the second dose was different. I would have to reschedule that by calling the health department after February 1. Well, great. After the Great Web Site Challenge, I didn't think it'd be easy to get through to DHS by phone. But there was nothing for it.
The lady gave me a sheaf of papers with vaccine information printed on them and directed me to drive into the fire house. I was expecting (hoping) that a bunch of hot firemen would descend on my car like the pit crew at a racetrack to give me the vaccine. My hopes were dashed. A roly-poly woman in a tie-dyed mask leaned into the car with a syringe instead. "I have mad skillz," she told me, and poked my arm.
I drove to another parking lot where I needed to wait fifteen minutes under the eye of another set of medical staff to make sure I had no adverse reactions. While I sat there, I did a web search for the efficacy of a single dose of the Moderna vaccine.
Hello! The studies reported that the Moderna vaccine has a whopping 80% immunity rate after the first dose.
Suddenly the snag didn't seem so snaggy anymore.
I drove home after the allotted wait time. Later in the evening, the injection site became sore and I felt a little off, so I took some Tylenol. Now I'm feeling perfectly well.
And . . . 80%. I feel a lot better about returning to work.
comments
No comments have been added yet.
