Whatever your personal stance on COVID-19 vaccinations, or whatever your vaccination status might be, recent data shows a lot fewer of us getting jabbed than before.
There’s a number of reasons for this, vaccination fatigue probably at the top of the list. I’ve received three doses but seem to be having difficulty motivating myself to go get the fourth, despite having an abundance of time to do so.
A false sense of security may have emerged with walking around these past several months mask-free, feeling the freedom of it, escaping the inconvenience of having to wear one in the first place.
COVID hasn’t gone anywhere, and hasn’t moved on from us even though we seem to have moved on from it. It’s still out there with all the same risks to all the same people.
I’m not here to argue for or against, and I’m not here to tell anyone how to think. My own view, though, is simple, straight-forward and influenced by my membership in a vulnerable group. COVID-19, while a societal nuisance, is real. I believe that vaccines are a part of a legitimate effort at prevention.
No harm. No foul.
Not everyone gets a flu shot. I do, in the belief that it helps me defend against the flu, a miserable virus if there ever was one. This is the same approach I take with COVID, despite my lagging on that fourth shot.
A lot of us have contracted COVID-19 in the past year or so and suffered relatively mild symptoms, which is great. For some, it may have provided added courage to move forward without getting boosters, thinking their acquired “immunity” now shields them adequately. While there may be some accuracy to that, COVID and its many permutations still lives among us.
Same virus. Different shirt.
There’s little of the sense of urgency that was the norm a year or so back, with pop-up clinics, pharmacies, public places, retail stores, etc all pitching in to give us ample opportunity to get the shots. We were in lockdown, mandated to wear masks, self-isolating, and washing our hands obsessively. That same level of vigilance isn’t present today, and the restoration of freedoms is going to be difficult to move away from if things get bad again, not that they will.
Once that “freedom” genie is out of the bottle, it’s a son-of-a-gun to get back in.
For me, writing this has motivated me to go ahead and get that fourth shot. I can go to my local Rexall where you get walk-in service with no appointment. If they’ll have me, I should be fully boosted within the next couple of days.
NEWSMAGRENFREW 