Vaccination Frustration
It’s difficult to be patient when our lives are at stake.
By Ira Rabois
Do you want to be vaccinated but can’t even get an appointment?
As we hear about friends or neighbors who are the same age as we are and in the same priority group getting vaccinated before us, it can feel like we’re in a competition and losing, or we’re repeatedly doing something wrong. Because potential relief is so close, we can feel the threats of the virus even more strongly.
We had grown almost used to wearing a mask. It had become weirdly “normal” to stay home or stay at a distance from anyone not in our pod, and to think of other humans as potential carriers of an infection that might kill us if we didn’t take precautions, including washing immediately after leaving their presence. For many of us, a compulsion to wash our hands has become a life-saving aptitude.
But now there’s a vaccine. Not a cure, but a preventive measure that could protect us from getting sick or dying. Or protect us from some of the strains of the virus. We had grown accustomed to the restraints. Now, the wounds are raw once again.
And the new strains add another level to the threat, another unknown. Who knows if the preventive measures we have used in the past will protect us in the…
