Kablooey Boom! Fully Vaccinated
I still remember the early days of the rumbles of the pandemic. Back then, I was yet to fathom how incredibly the pandemic would change my life. In the 18 months of this pandemic, I have lost my financial safety nets, wife has walked out after labelling me an unemployed, money less a-hole, lost my company, lost actual people to death.
It has not been pretty.
As a voracious reader of everything that naturally piques my curiosity, I have read thousands and thousands of pages of information about the ongoing pandemic. It was inevitable that some kind of vaccination would be invented. I was also confident that India would be at the forefront of the vaccination solution given it’s massive industrial medicine making capacity.
I mean, there is no dispute India is the pharmacy of the world. We may not invent stuff, but we sure can manufacture stuff.
When I got my first vaccination in August, here in Mysore, there was already very little crowd. Of course, Mysore happens to be one of the more modern cities in India with a world class health care infrastructure. People here have high levels of education and it is not that crowded to start with.
I ended up at one of the ‘private’ paid for vaccines from a local private hospital, for my first dose of vaccination. It was a smooth affair. An appointment was booked online. There was a small queue. Payment was easy. Everything was done in less than an hour.
Today, due to a combination of many circumstances, I was able to walk into a government health care centre, show my ID, and yes, got the second vaccination totally free of charge. All wrapped up in less than 5 minutes.
In all this, as a tech person, I am very impressed with the super cool efficiency of technology. All my records were already updated on the ‘Aarogya Setu’ app. I am even more suprised because the app is available on iPhone (in India, iPhone has a very, very and extremely very small market share amongst smartphones).
In fact, the app from the government of India is on par with top quality apps from Uber or Airbnb.
The app immediately told me when I got my first dose. Within seconds of getting the second dose, I was provided with a certificate and the app instantly updated to show my vaccination status.
Just incredible! Along with UPI, I must say, the Aarogya Setup app is another tech ecosystem that makes me very happy as a freelancer in software, from India.
Final Note
What happens next? I am not sure.
The vaccination status, from what I understand, is helpful but is not a 100 % defense against the pandemic. I suppose, I will be more comfortable heading outside. I might check out the cinemas.
I plan to continue wearing mask and follow social distance. I was already working from home, with minimal people contact since 2012.
I suppose I feel safer.
I work as a full time freelance coding tutor. Hire me at UpWork or Fiverr or Stack Overflow. My personal website is here. Find more of my art at Behance and Unsplash.
