McCartney’s COVID-19 Journey

The COVID- 19 Vaccine: Please, Just Get It

— McCartney Fix, Co-News Editor

As I sat idle, just one parked car in a line of many, anxiously awaiting my first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine, a selection of news reels ran rampant in my head. I could only think of the stories of vaccinated individuals, young and old, who experienced great suffering and illness and in a scant few instances death. As the needle entered my arm, I braced not only for a sudden spike in pain, but also a 24-48 hour period of agony. Then I got home, and felt fine, so I went to sleep and woke up feeling tired. That was all though, I simply felt a little tired. There was no searing pain, no deafness or internal hemorrhaging, I just had a sore arm. There was also a light sense of general fatigue, like the side effects one might expect from over exerting themselves in a gym. “Oh, just you wait,” said those skeptical of the vaccine. The second dose is when things get bad, you will be bed ridden for days, bound to your four walled prison of a bedroom, sweating out the pain. So, I received the second dose and went home. Nothing happened, so I went to bed and woke up, and there were still no side effects. There was no sign of even minimal side effects, no fatigue or soreness of any sort. Less than 24 hours removed from my initial injection, I was playing basketball. Now you may be just as surprised as I was. I expected something to happen, even something as minimal as a night spent out of commission from the side effects, but it never came. This vaccine, this scientific boogeyman that could bring a mere mortal down to their knees was bound to demolish the compromised immune system of a life long asthmatic such as myself, but it did not. My father, who received his dose alongside me reported similarly non-invasive side effects, he was able to function at his often laborious job with minimal discomfort in his arm. For disclosure’s sake, my mother, who also got the vaccine with us, was out of commission for a day with a headache and no other side effects. The described side effects seem like nothing in comparison to the COVID symptoms many sufferers have described. Less than 36 hours after her initial injection she was back to 100% and able to function as per usual. I understand this vaccine is scary, it came along quickly, under unimaginably tense circumstances in order to fend off a disease many of us can not begin to understand. I say all of this to both sympathize with weary perspectives and genuinely plead that if you are able, get the vaccine!