COVID-19: The Journey. Chapter 13, Baker's dozen, with second shot done

Steve and I after our second Pfizer shot on May 5.

 

Entrance to the Genesis Covid Vaccine Clinic in Davenport, Iowa

    The Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine went into my left arm seamlessly. I hardly felt it and had to ask the nurse, Katie, if she was finished or not.

    This was Wednesday, May 5, the Baker's "Second Vaccine Day" at the Covid clinic run by Genesis Medical Center. 

    We'd gotten the first vaccine on April 6 in a clinic that included maybe 100 or more people. After that shot I had no side effects but Steve became feverish for about one day.

    The second shot had to be on a Wednesday because that is the hospital's "second shot" policy. We'd originally planned to do this a week earlier but worried about possible side effects interfering with our daughter's family coming to visit; it was the first time to our home in almost six months.

    We thus delayed the second shot for one week. The side effects are minor so far. The site of the shot on my left arm hurts a bit and that's also the case with Steve.

    The two vaccine clinics were different; the first one seemed to be extremely busy while this second one was more sedate.

    That might be an indication of the vaccine hestitancy going on in the United States. According to a story in the May 6 Quad-City Times, more than 66,000 people had skipped or delayed getting the second shot in a two-part series. More than 1,069,010 Iowans were fully vaccinated as of this week, state data showed.

    The first vaccine was scheduled as soon as we'd arrived home from an extended time away. We'd visited Florida and the Southeast U.S., stopping to see my sister, cousin and two girlfriends. Most of the folks had already been vaccinated in Florida, and we felt we had some natural immunity because of the COVID virus we'd experienced in January. In addition, Steve had received a medical infusion as he recovered from the virus and hence had to wait 90 days for a vaccine.

    There were no ill effects from that trip. We were happy to get the vaccination process underway.

    (Most of the extended Baker family members work in school districts or are city employees so have been fully vaccinated for several weeks.)

    We get to the "fully vaccinated" status on May 19, 14 days after the second shot. I might relax, internally, but plan to continue wearing masks for a long while.

    It's been quite a journey the past year -- something we'll never forget. That's why I've penned a series of blogs on the pandemic and it's been included as part of the Davenport Public Library's collection of stories and historical data from the era.

    It's now time to carve a new way forward.  

    We bought a couple of tickets to a Quad Cities River Bandits baseball game, later in May. We'll make our way to downtown Davenport to watch our minor league baseball team at the stadium located on the Mississippi River. These reserved seats are a safe distance from others at the game. 

    We'll wear face masks when not seated in the stadium, as policy requires.