Being Part of the Solution
Silver World Newspaper column -
Life From My View
Picture by Malinda Mcdonald
March 30, 2021 I received my 2nd COVID 19 vaccination at our medical center in Lake City, Colorado. Bouquets of praise and gratitude to our amazing public health department. A year into the global pandemic, the worldwide death toll exceeds a sickening 2.5 million. More than half a million deaths have been in the United States. Hope is arriving in the form of vaccines that have persistently shown success in preventing COVID-19.
I had the Moderna vaccine.
This vaccine protects against a potentially fatal illness, and its
only proven side effects are short-term and mild for most people.
Having symptoms after being vaccinated shows that our bodies are
working to be able to fight the disease. I’ve had this experience
after other vaccinations. . After my first COVID 19 vaccination, my
arm was just the tiniest bit sore. Having heard that many people had
a very sore arm, I made sure to rub and exercise my arm and that
helped a lot, as did our RN Shawna’s light touch. I received my
second COVID 19 vaccination on a Tuesday, exactly 4 weeks later,
about 11:30AM. I felt fine until the next morning. I woke Wednesday
with several symptoms that continued all day, including a sore arm
that rubbing and exercising didn’t help much this time. I had an
upset stomach that was helped immensely with crackers and soda
water. My mild headache, fatigue and chills were helped with taking
ibuprofen every 4 hours (for me, in this situation, ibuprofen worked
much better than Tylenol) and I took ibuprofen PM at bedtime.
Symptoms were lessening Thursday and Friday and I woke up Saturday
feeling completely normal again!
Do NOT take any pain reliever before the vaccine. It's
possible that taking a painkiller before getting a vaccine will
result in a "decrease in antibody response," explained Dr. Gregory
Poland, director of the Vaccine Research Group at the Mayo Clinic in
Rochester, Minn. Having brought my vaccination card I received after
my first shot, Shawna again filled it out appropriately and
suggested I take a picture with my phone for a backup and store my
vaccination card with my passport. I also made a paper copy of my
vaccination card.
“The (COVID) vaccines have been highly
protective against severe disease, hospitalization, and death,”
says, executive director William Moss of the International Vaccine
Access Center at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.
Even after you've been vaccinated, though you are protected, it's
still possible that you can transmit the virus to others. So you
should still wear a mask, practice social distancing, and frequently
wash your hands when out and about with crowds. Remember, the mask
is about keeping other people safe so we are not continually
spreading COVID 19. Scientist say that small groups of vaccinated
people can safely gather without mask.
Global pandemic or a cold, prevention
protocol for spreading all germs is not about what one feels
comfortable with or what one thinks but rather what science has
proven. Be respectful of other people. Don’t cough or sneeze on
people. Stay home with a fever and 24 hours after you are fever
free. Keep your hands clean and away from your face.
"Without symptoms" can refer to two
groups of people: those who eventually do have symptoms
(pre-symptomatic) and those who never go on to have symptoms
(asymptomatic). During this pandemic, there have been people without
symptoms who have spread the Coronavirus infection to others. An
asymptomatic carrier is a person or other organism that has become
infected with a pathogen, but that displays no signs or symptoms.
Although unaffected by the pathogen, carriers can transmit it to
others or develop symptoms in later stages of the disease.
Always and forever – wash your hands.
Hand washing throughout the day, is commonsense hygiene to always
prevent disease through cleanliness. It’s not about what you think:
you use the bathroom – wash your hands. Before cooking or eating –
wash your hands. You come home after being out and about – wash your
hands. Typhoid Mary is a well-known, interesting asymptomatic
carrier worth googling. She did not have typhoid and looked healthy
and felt fine but she spread the disease because she was an was an
asymptomatic carrier and would not follow protocol prevention. She
was a cook who easily spread the illness typhoid by preparing food
with unwashed hands. Corona viruses are spread most often by
respiratory droplets; thus the masks and social distancing.
A registered nurse friend of mine who
lives in southern Indiana says that she’ll never forget the
horribleness of so many people dying of COVID on her hospital shift.
Having run out of supplies, she had to cover the faces of the dead
with black garbage bags – “haunting.” The Coronavirus affects
different people differently. This past year too many people ignored
the warning of mixing households and traveling. Some people got
sick, some very sick, others died, some were hospitalized and some
seemed unaffected - though they could have spread COVID. Some people
who get COVID, even mild cases, are left with heart and lung damage
and some people are left with sleep problems, mental issues, the
loss of taste and or the sense of smell.
Before the vaccine was out, a friend of
mine who lives in Oklahoma and her husband, like too many people,
choose not to stay home as was very strongly advised and instead
they flew numerous times visiting family across the country. Who
knows if they spread COVID 19. On their last trip together they
ended up flying home separately. Unbeknownst to them at first, the
husband caught COVID on his last flight. While still pre-symptomatic
he was with his son, daughter-in-law, grandchildren and then his
wife when she came home. The family was fortunate that there was
only one death. Sadly, my friend marked her 40th wedding
anniversary this March a widow.
Be part of the solution – get your
vaccinations.