Making The World A Safer Place
Now is not the time to take our eyes off the ball
Like lots of people, I am sure, I have always thought how cute this colourful fluffy ball above depicting the Coronavirus looks. It looks like the sort of thing you would throw to your pet dog, or young child even, to play with. How ironic to think that such a harmless, fun filled looking object has the potential to wreak as much havoc on the world population as it has. It would bring a whole new meaning to the word "Catch" as you you hurl it across the park for your dog run after and retrieve. And yet, I do feel that lots of people are so fatigued with the subject that they have resorted to not taking it seriously enough. Not I.
Today I had my second vaccine against Covid and it seems I just slipped under the wire since the Japanese have run out of supplies for the time being. Hopefully this will be a short pause in the roll out of vaccinations across the whole country and we will be back on the way to bringing the worst of this deadly disease under control
I must admit I had my doubts about having the vaccine in the first place after reading of quite a few people died of the vaccine itself. Even worse, it seems the vaccine does not necessarily mean you will not get Covid anyway. What it does do apparently is lesson the possibility of you suffering the worse effects of Covid if you do get it.
I am happy to report that I had no ill effects after the first jab other than a sore upper arm for a few days. And so far I haven't even had that after the second jab, though there is still time for that.
In my case I am somewhat lucky in as much as I am already taking something called Actemera for PMR and GCA which has been proven to give some degree of protection against the worst of Covid anyway. And the thought crossed my mind that maybe the Actemera has also helped to protect me from any vaccination side effects. It will be interesting to see if there is any research into the efficacy of Actemera as a pre-vaccination step towards side effect free use of any of the vaccinations. Only time will tell I suppose.
Will any of the vaccinations help us to bring this plague under control and maybe even eradicate it altogether? Again, we will have to be patient. All I know is that I do now feel safer with it rather than without it. Should I get Covid I have been reassured by my medical team that there is far less likelihood that I will end up on a ventilator fighting for my life. For that I am truly grateful.
As for the anti-vaccers, I truly hope for their sake that they do not contract this deadly disease and live to rue their decision to not take any preventative measures against it. Of course I fully understand peoples' misgivings about having the jabs. We are deep in previously un-chartered territory here in as much as the vaccines have not been as extensively tested as would be normal for any new drug. But I for one am more than happy to accept the risks on the basis that statistically, so far, it would seem it is far safer to have the vaccination than not.
Another way to look at this is as a global trial which if nothing else should provide a massive amount of data about all aspects of the efficacy and safety of the vaccination. And although there will no doubt be casualties along the way, overall it will hopefully lead us towards making the world a much safer place.
Meanwhile, the UK is lifting restrictions which may have the effect of persuading the people that we are now all in the clear, when indeed we are very far from it. Now is not the time to all rush out and celebrate, not with infection rates on the rise. It is the time to knuckle down and continue to be vigilant for all of our sakes.