Fear of the COVID-19 injection

The million-dollar question for me is how will I get the COVID-19 vaccine?

And it has nothing to do with my being in favour of people getting it; which I am, but the sight of that needle about to penetrate by arm will be a major challenge.

Being terrified of two things – lightning and needles – might not be unusual, but it is the extent of that fear that is in question.

What is strange to me is that all the photos that I have seen of people all over the world getting the vaccine, they seemed quite comfortable accepting the ‘jook’. From the Jamaican-born nurse who was used as the guinea pig in the United States, to Joe Biden, and all the others who have stepped forward as part of the new deal, none even winced, which is to suggest that things are not so bad afterall. But I fear otherwise.

The logic in all of this, as the escape route to the injection is planned, is that if everyone else in this world gets their shots, then it is highly unlikely that I would have to go through that process of torture.

Over the years that I have been giving blood and getting

tested by drawing blood samples, there is only one individual whom I feel comfortable in allowing those things to be done to me – Ms Anglin who works at the Annotto Bay Hospital in St Mary.

Maybe it’s because the first time I went there for blood work, she did what she had to do and left me wondering if it was all over. It was the first time that any such thing had happened to me. After that, Ms Anglin, who I believe is the longest-serving employee of the hospital’s laboratory, can extract blood from any part of me and make me feel like I am chilling on the beach with Serena Williams.

But when it comes down to the COVID-19 injections, sadly, Ms Anglin will not be around. And so, I will have to be put through a round of deep consoling, just to get me in the mood to have that needle inserted in my arm. For to be quite honest, I fear having a needle pointed at me than looking down the barrel of a gun, which is why I had to convince Dr Wolfe (now deceased), an American general practitioner in St Mary during the 1980s, that I was allergic to needles, making way for pills instead.