editorial Welcome to this week’s editorial, It is six days since my AstraZeneca jab and the soreness in my upper arm has now subsided. It wasn’t too bad, not enough to keep me awake if I slept on it but enough to ask for the next jab to be on the other arm in twelve Vol 16 September 15th 2017 weeks =me. 28 April December 7th, 2017 Vol 48 27th 2018
I was fortunate to see a social media invita=on to a>end a weekend vaccine clinic in Narooma encouraging me to book a fi@een minute window. I arrived, filled in a form, waited around five minutes, walked into a prac=ce room, rolled up my sleeve and received a totally painless jab. Simple. A@er a nice lunch soon a@er I drove home to await the onset of expected side effects that I had Googled. I was ready for my 24 to 48 hours of =redness, headache, muscle pain, fever and chills. Google also warned me of possible nausea, feeling unwell, joint pain, possible enlarged lymph nodes, dizziness, decreased appe=te and stomach pain. Ido accept that Dr Google can be a bit of a pessimis=c hypochondriac at =mes. I must say here that I was well prepared. Knowing there was a very rare risk of death due to bloodclots I had ensured my will was in order, that my Health Ac=on Plan was up to date reflec=ng my wishes in the event I didn’t die but was no longer able to func=on, and that I had backed up my laptop files and my 75,000 photos along with all the instruc=ons for my powers of a>orney, my updated passwords, and all the other instruc=ons one might like to offer in the event of karking it. This might sound over drama=c but for me the task was straight forward as I had done it many =mes in the past before seFng off to places that are less than hospitable. On those trips I would have my ever present passport, some $US dollars stashed in my shoes and the expecta=on that I could lose it all. Again this might sound drama=c but it wasn’t. It was just a ma>er of being prepared, inspired by the old American Express TV adver=sement that featured “Mr Wong” saving the day for a hapless traveller in Hong Kong who had lost everything. I o@en played out in my head if I was ready to lose everything and how to recover. An odd game that kept me amused during long hours in transit. There was one thing that I relied on, on those trips that encountered some of the best slums in the world. My secret weapon was the force field of my vaccina=ons (I kept a full list at the back of my passport with their dates and due dates). Although the local varia=ons of gastro o@en found their mark, and the occasional virus rendered me a fever ridden mess for days on end the big nas=es were kept at bay via my vaccina=ons. But generally I was prepared, as best I could be, knowing I was in a developing country but that my “house” at home was in order with my paperwork and my instruc=ons up to date should I not return. As I sat in the wai=ng room for my AstraZeneca jab last weekend I looked around at the twenty or so who were also there playing their roll in the vaccina=on produc=on line and wondered if they had prepared for the occasion and like me, an=cipa=ng everything from bloodclots to being out of ac=on for two or more days. I also wondered if they had their home made chicken stock already prepared for restora=ve soups or have a stash of therapeu=c bananas at the ready. I could only hope, and assumed they did. I then thought of the 3,717,000 others around the world who had contracted Covid and then, within a week or so, died. They didn’t see it coming. There was li>le =me to prepare. If only they had been immunised. If only they had been given the chance to have a jab. Behind every one of those deaths is a family, friends, and paperwork. So much paperwork. The unpaid bills, the loans, bank savings, assets to be sold, assets to be distributed, lawyers, funeral arrangements and the grief of a life cut short, most likely without any final goodbye. The millions of goodbyes that remain unsaid. While the jab last weekend was for me it was also for my family. It was for my friends and for those I might meet on the street. It was for every person who might come within 1.5m of me or touch something I may have touched. I enjoy life so I owe it to myself to be vaccinated. But I also realise that behind every face I see there is an equal complexity of a life that, in most parts, remains unfinished. I chose to have the vaccina=on for the sake of me, for my family and for all of those in my community that I might meet or interact with including you. Let’s roll up our sleeves for ourselves and each other. Un=l next—lei beagle weekly : Vol 210 June 4th 2021
h>ps://youtu.be/UKcbcHHXPU4 2
