Get Your Shot. Then Let’s Go For Ice Cream!

Listen up friends.

I am one of the middle of the road people on COVID vaccines. Yes, I want this pandemic to be over. Yes, I believe in science. No, I don’t believe vaccines come without risk.

Hedging my bets, and because I wanted to hug my kids, I took the shot. Now I am asking you to join me.

Reasons to take the Johnson and Johnson vaccine:

1. Only one dose is needed.
2. Johnson and Johnson makes BAND-AIDS and Baby shampoo.
3. The vaccine is stored at normal temperatures.
4. Not mRNA technology. More like old-fashioned vaccines.

I know some people will scoff at me for even mentioning those as reasons. I don’t care. My dad used to tell me that white sugar and maple syrup are exactly the same chemically. I believe that is true. I still prefer maple syrup because it comes from a living source.

We are not robots and our feelings and opinions, even when not “rational” come into our decision making process.

I don’t think it’s helpful to speak to people from on high like some recent social media posts I’ve seen:

I just read that a full third of the people who are still unvaccinated would get the shot for a cash payment. This proves what I’ve known all along, that they aren’t really ideologically opposed to vaccines. They are simply selfish.

I wrote a condescending email to my anti-vaxxer brother…. does that count? And yes, I know, condescension is highly ineffective…

“It’s very hard for “marks” — people who have been conned to accept that they’ve been conned.

Some people are less than enthusiastic but took the vaccine anyway:

I got the shots…. 1st shot, the pharmacist said I was doing such a great thing, that I ought to be so proud… puhlease…I did it for ONE reason, and one reason alone… to stop having to wear that f’n mask…

To go into say, the KG, and be the only one in there wearing a frigging mask, sucks… to wear a mask when the humidity is 98%, and it’s well into the 90’s temperature… frig that… I was not going to go thru another damned summer wearing the thing… My hat’s off to anyone who has to wear it still.

so yeah… I got it for purely selfish reasons… I didn’t get vaccinated to protect myself… nor did I get the shots to protect others… frig that, and frig them… I could care less. I told the pharmacist as much, and she didn’t care why I got it, just that I did… I won’t preach, either way, for or against the shots… that’s completely up to the person either getting them, or NOT getting them.

I’m curious what works to change someone’s mind. A lot of people are trying.

Examples:

This is a straightforward non-judgy approach

This one takes a political spin and has lots of interesting statistics

This one got a lot of claps. I admire Jessica Wildfire’s writing.

This one is an interview with Dr. John Vassall, a top expert on vaccine safety. It is not preachy.

This was retweeted by Hillary Clinton for people on the fence

This was written by me, first as a letter to my sisters. One sister ok’ed my publishing it, the other did not, so I rewrote it to a broader audience.

Conclusion

As usual there are strong opinions on both sides of this issue.

Remember how Abe Lincoln tried to bring us back together after the civil war? He said “we are not enemies but friends.”

At our best and worst we are family arguing around the dinner table. “You’re a racist misogynist…pass the peas…sure I’ll be at your kid’s game.”

My sisters and I don’t always agree. Sometimes we judge. When we were kids, sometimes we would pull each other’s hair. We always kiss and make up. Our mom and dad taught us that love comes first.

Get the shot. Then let’s go for ice cream.

A recent graduate of the Newport MFA and lifelong troublemaker, my poetry and prose have appeared in Brevity, Multiplicity and Voices of the Valley Anthology.