Roughly 50 years ago I got the very first vaccine, for smallpox. It came from ‘cowpox’, and, for today’s trivia lesson, the word “vaccine” derives from the Latin word for cow (Vacca), in its honour! So, a 50-year old cow-shot that was then already a hundred years old.
Today I got another shot in the same spot at the local pharmacy. Sure it came from a political scandal-plagued factory in Baltimore with poor quality control. Sure our elected leaders had to beg our neighbours to allow a small amount of export of a vaccine that isn’t even planned to be certified for use. But, that’s behind me now. I have joined the (as of now) 35% of Canadian adults with a shot in the arm.
The best part? The odds of me accidentally infecting someone go way down. Imagine how bad you would feel if you waited for a “better shot”, got mildly ill, but made someone else more ill?
The booking system worked great (I used the pharmacy one linked from https://covid-19.ontario.ca/book-vaccine/). The pharmacist got 600 doses at start of week and was now out of supply.
Its not a panacea, but the best shot is the one you can get right now. I hope all of you have or soon have yours.
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