Shot? Or Not?
The first thing I did after getting my second Covid-19 vaccine was to schedule some dental work I’d been delaying. The second was to make a trip to Costco. I’ve been using curbside pickup for a year, and going into a store has never felt so exciting. I managed to stick to the list I had but admittedly, wanted to buy everything I saw. When I got to the checkout, I expressed how thrilled I was to be able to be inside the store. The two people working there told me they wouldn’t be getting the vaccine. I was surprised. “Do you think you’ll get sick from the shot? Are you concerned it could somehow alter your genetics? Does it go against your religious beliefs? ” Each time they frowned thoughtfully and answered “noooo???” as if for the first time considering those possibilities. One of them finally shrugged and said, “I don’t know, I’m just not comfortable with it,” and the other agreed. I didn’t ask anything else. I’d heard there’s a contingent of people who don’t want the vaccine but had so far only run into that once. Everyone else I know has been jockeying for position to get it. In fact, when my healthcare organization offered it a little earlier than others in the state, a couple of people were snarky about it. I must have “jumped the line”. Why weren’t they eligible? How was it I was able to get vaccinated when people in their families couldn’t? I had no answer, except to say when my healthcare organization said, “Come and and get it”, I did. And fast. I came home from Costco completely flummoxed. How will we ever get this this virus under control with this kind of unexplained resistance?
