Getting vaccinated is a personal decision

Alpha, Delta, Gamma, Iota… Oh My!

It’s like reciting the Greek alphabet, but only if it was that simple. These are variants. Variants of Covid-19 which have all been found in people in Arkansas who have coronavirus.

Alpha is from the United Kingdom, Delta first emerged in India, Gamma was first seen in Brazil and Iota is from New York. Don’t we wish they could have stayed there?

Instead, each has found its way into our state, and unfortunately, many of our residents appear to still be unconcerned.

First off let me say I’m not pro-vax, but neither am I anti-vax. I’m more of a “make the decision that is best for you and your situation, in your own time” type of person.

The route to my vaccination was like riding the Tilt-a-Whirl at the county fair. It was up and down and made my own head spin at times. Should I get vaccinated? Is it safe? Are there long-term effects?

So far, I’ve been able to avoid getting Covid, but would I get sick from the vaccine? I never really worried about what was actually in the shots because I knew if I ended up in the hospital with Covid, I would also not know what was in the medicine they would use to treat me.

I was not the first in line to get the shot when it became available although I had many opportunities. My husband, daughter and other family members were vaccinated early in the process. My son and I waited for own reasons, none of which was being afraid to get a shot.

Maybe we wanted to wait and see how it affected others to see if they grew extra arms, legs or heads. Maybe we just weren’t ready. He had his reasons and I had mine.

We chose to wait, and wait we did until Covid hit too close to home when we lost a friend – a young mother – to the virus.

At that point, we set our concerns aside and took the shot. Regardless of our feelings about the vaccine, the decision was not about us. To us, it was more about protecting his daughter, my granddaughter, who is still too young to be vaccinated.

It’s been almost two weeks and I’m glad we did it. We’re now in the vaccinated percentage as this Delta variant rages.

To paraphrase a quote I heard on the news the other night. “People say they’re afraid to take the vaccine because they don’t know what’s in it. But, when they contract Covid and have to be hospitalized, they’re willing to accept medicines made by the same people who made the vaccines in order to save their lives.”

To me, spending 15 minutes on a vaccine that could prevent me from spending weeks in the hospital and even longer trying to recover seemed like the better option.

We’ve had no side effects from our shots, nor have we grown any extra limbs. I still have a bruise on my arm though, which I believe is simply a solemn reminder that we did the right thing.

I hope more people will come to that realization before it’s too late.