NCR is currently under MECQ (modified enhance community quarantine) the next most strict quarantine classification after ECQ. And we still have to wait eight days more till the next decision if the classification will be eased out or not. Praying that it will. We miss eating out again, going to church, and playing outdoors. If things will be even better, maybe we can travel again to Tagaytay, a place we find nearest us where we can breathe fresh air and see more green trees and nature.
I decided to write about my first shot as I know it will be interesting to read about it in the future, when all of these would be part of our memories. I am feeling positive that it will, that we will all learn from this pandemic and that in the future, we will happily tell ourselves that we know better. I also thought to write about it because I realized I’m getting more and more forgetful these days. I want to retain this in my memory because I want to remind myself that we were brave enough to risk something such as getting a vaccination because we want to protect our loved ones and the rest of the community. If we are not vaccinated, the chances that we get and be affected severely by the virus and pass it on to our kids and others as well.
The first vaccines arrived in the Philippines sometime March 2021 and this August, roughly 10% of Filipinos have been vaccinated. Fortunately, after weeks of waiting from our registration to QC Vax Easy and EZ Consult, we got the text message we were waiting for. My husband and I got our text messages separately, one day apart. We also got different vaccine shots, I got Pfizer while he got AstraZeneca.
The venue where I got my first dose was on an elementary school near our place. It was my first time to see the school. It was big and I got there a few minutes ahead my schedule and there were only a few people there. I got my shots within an hour. When I got in the school, I just filled out some forms, then I was interviewed ( a lot of health questions ) from a staff, and then headed out to a small room full of PPE-wearing medical staff. I knew that I would be taking Pfizer because it was written in the form I filled-up. I saw the needle was a bit small and the shot didn’t hurt much and it was very quick. I was quite afraid because of what I’ve heard about the vaccine having side-effects. But fortunately, apart from a little pain on the spot where I was injected, I felt nothing unusual.
My husband though got AstraZeneca shot and the day after he got the vaccine, he had fever. But after one day, he was back to normal. We found out that there are indeed more people who experienced side-effects from AstraZeneca. I am just hoping that we will feel no adverse side-effect when we get our 2nd dose.
In current statistics, only 17% of the country’s populations has been vaccinated. It will take 50 days to give shots to another 10 percent. If we will compute it, it will take 4,000 days, at least to vaccinate the whole population of the Philippines, that is if everyone will be cooperative. That’s a whole year of waiting.
Yes, it will take time, but it can be done. And I will pray that maybe, possibly, after a year’s time, when the Philippines has a new president, the pandemic is already gone, my eldest is already in college and we are set to visit again other places we’ve always dreamed to travel to. We really just have to have faith, in the Lord, in the system and we also need to be conscious always of our actions. I hope and I pray that by the time I read this post again, there will be a smile in my face, because we all were victorious.
