The summer is dwindling down to a close and I find it is important to write about my experiences with the Covid-19 vaccine.

My 2021 started off in the shitter and didn’t get much better from there. I started growing my own food, something I’ve wanted to do for years and got a nice, but small crop of spring garlic. They were very good and I moved on to planting Habanero. Sadly for me, 2021 isn’t a very good year for Habaneros on the north east. Several major storms and 4 of the 6 plants I had are dead and the two left are 8 weeks in and they’re still tiny. I may have to bring them in and try growing them in the winter, or try again in the spring of 2022. I have managed to make some very good, fresh hot sauces in my own house and will have to post about those at a later date. What I really want to bring up most though is my experience with the Moderna vaccine.

June 15^th was my first shot and everything went well. I watched the entire 5 seasons of Breaking Bad, plus El Camino. I haven’t reviewed it yet, regardless, that isn’t the point, which is to say, I had to fill my time awaiting the next dosage and trying to go outside as little as possible. The beginning of July sucked, as I slept for nearly an entire week straight, quite literally, and could barley eat. I had all the symptoms of Covid-19, except it wasn’t. My parents and siblings all got the same virus and 3 of the 5 of us got the covid shot and turned up negative. My siblings, at the time, had not gotten the shot, as we each did it in waves. My parents are approaching their 60’s, so they’re the most venerable and got it first. Then I got it, then finally my siblings. Now we’re all vaccinated. The second part of the shot went off without a hitch and I’ve been very good ever since, although I’m thinking I will get the booster when it is available.

Now, I believe vaccinations work and are fantastic, have had all my shots and the only time I don’t is with the flu shot. When it comes to the flu, normally I end up with it before the vaccines are even available, flu strains are not the weather and are not overly predictable anyways, so even if I didn’t get sick, there is a chance that you could get the wrong strain of flu shot, because no one is perfect. Anyways, this is a newer version of an old technology that was rushed through FDA procedures, with good reason, but still, any reasonable person that was skeptical of the shot, myself included, would have had good reason to be. Science isn’t McDonalds and you cannot rush it, especially when it comes to Virology or anything similar.

So does the shot work? I think it does. I initially got sick in December of 2019 with something I wasn’t quite sure of. It hit me like a ton of bricks, which is a rare thing. Fast forward to January and well, we start to be aware of Covid-19. I had already recovered and so didn’t my family from this mystery illness. I spent most of my time drinking and watching Lucifer, of which I reviewed. Side note, I really need to stop getting sick and binge watching Netflix. I did my part to stay inside during covid, venturing out very little, which is normal for me, since I’m not a partier or anything, I don’t patron many restaurants, since it is cheaper to dine in. I order my books from Amazon and I wait for most movies to hit DVD before I watch them anyways, unless something really interest me. So, short of going out to get laid, or visit the local nerd shop, I am very adept at the whole, stay home and fuck around thing.  

Now, while I didn’t get checked for covid, remember I was fine by the time we knew what it was and there were no test yet, I strongly suspect I did have it. Every six months, I would get very light covid seeming symptoms, though. I didn’t get checked, because it seemed counter intuitive. If I don’t have it, I am exposing myself and risking others to see if I do. If I did have it, it is very mild and not worth the ER or Doctors trip. So I stayed in.

Since I have had the vaccine, the only time my nose drips, is when I have hot sauce and the only cough I have is from smoking a cigarette.  I don’t even get any of the mild aspects anymore. I went around without the mask for a while, before the CDC recommended that even vaccinated people wearing it again and was fine.

While the numbers of people dying to covid aren’t overly drastic, that small minority of people which are not vaccinated would be wise to do so, regardless of autonomy over their own body, because that small number, could be even smaller than it already is and since it doesn’t hurt or cause any issues, on top of the fact it is free, you really aren’t doing you or anyone else any favors by not getting it.

In the future, I think the covid shot might be like a flu shot. You get an annual booster of it and off you go until it disappears or is replaced by something more aggressive than it is. While fears of future complications might not be entirely unfounded, only time will tell about both, but until then when it comes to the shot, I say it is highly recommended.