Fully Vaccinated

Yay Science

FWIW I've had my second Astra-Zeneca shot. I was one of the first people in my age group to go and get the first shot - so swiftly in fact that I missed out on the amendments to the rule that allowed the Pfizer to my age group. I even pleaded with the doctor at the time to give me the Pfizer if he could spare it but no, I didn't fit into the category to be a Pfizer recipient. And so it was I got my first Astra-Zeneca shot and booked myself 13 weeks hence from that date. I didn't think much of it at the time, but things have a way of changing rather rapidly. 

So 12 weeks on, the NSW government has brought in full lockdowns for Greater Sydney and found my clinic to be more than 5 km away from my domicile, so it was bit of an issue to be contemplating travel to get my second shot. Luckily a pop up clinic appeared in my neighbourhood so I sort of walked in, explained my situation and talked the people into giving me that second shot. At the end of it, the nurse said "congratulations!"

Well, if the bloody pandemic ended, that would be worth celebrating. The fully vaccinated thing? Eesh. Really?

Although my experience in waiting while some of my dear friends managed to finagle Pfizers for themselves and be fully vaccinated in 3 weeks as opposed to 12-13weeks got me thinking that perhaps one of the reasons why Australia is taking so long to get full vaccinated is because 

    a) People are waiting for Pfizer and hoping to skip the Astra-Zeneca

    b) 12-13 weeks between shots for Astra-Zeneca is a lot longer than you think when you're sitting around in-between jabs. It's a whole 3 months, baby. 

It's so bloody long, they've changed the recommendations and advised people to get it in 6 weeks instead of 12-13 - and what exact difference does it or doesn't it make? Does anybody have some data on this?

Turns out, they do.

Yay Data 

Since my 2nd shot I've also been wondering just how inferior the Astra-Zeneca is to a pair of Pfizers and my friend shared the video below which is absolutely worth watching:

Turns out the Astra-Zeneca is not too bad.

Anyway, I hope you are all well out there and that you're been vaccinated. Don't hold out - it's not worth it. Even if you're fully vaccinated, you can still get the Delta variant. It's a bastard of a virus. The good news is, it likely won't send you to the hospital if you do as long as you're vaccinated - and that's a good enough reason to get the shots. 

What an annoyance, but it's the world we live in. If you want a semblance of the old normal to come back, everybody's got to get vaccinated. The only way to live with the virus is to have everybody vaccinated. That's just what the numbers say.