Gratitude Monday: Shot in the arm

Here was my Friday. Got up, fed the birds, had breakfast and spent much of the day putting out customer fires. (Honestly—software would work a lot better if you just stopped letting users on it.) Then, at 1530, I drove to the other side of Fairfax County and got the first dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine.

All through February, the county COVID website told me that they were processing people who’d registered for the vaccine on 18 January; I registered on 22 January. Then, mid-afternoon on Thursday, my mobile phone flashed a text—the county telling me I could schedule an appointment. Well, I was in mid-fire somewhere, but dropped everything to go to their site, where I was told that I had three appointment availabilities for Friday afternoon. I was directed to Inova Health Conglomerate’s site, where I had to register as a patient on their kludgy portal. By the time I picked my way through that (shooting and uploading pix of my insurance card), the 1630 slot was gone, so I ended up with 1645—across the county in rush-hour DC traffic.

Ergo me leaving an hour early; I got there just about within the 15 minutes early they tell you to arrive. Just on 1645 I was getting the shot from a school nurse in Alexandria who volunteered to help with the effort. (She was really good; I actually didn’t feel the needle at all.) It was quite the factory vibe, but the process worked pretty well. (Pro tip: definitely do the e-check-in before you get there; much better to do it at home instead of at one of their kiosks.)

By 1655 I was heading home, where I put out some more user fires, poured myself a glass of Chandon and watched a classic Poirot episode, feeling massive relief and gratitude to have got the first dose. (There was an email in my queue when I got home that allowed me to schedule my second appointment, so that’s all set up for 27 March—a Saturday—at 0815.)

This is not just gratitude; it’s sink into Child’s Pose and say the rosary gratitude. I give thanks to all the bench scientists who worked steadily throughout the past year to develop and test vaccines; to all the people who took part in the clinical trials and those who validated the results; to the supply chain workers and the cyber defenders who protected the integrity of the serum from attack; to the folks who built the portals that allow governments and hospitals to process tens of thousands of registrations; to the logisticians and program managers who put together the workflows; to the hundreds of volunteers who get shots into arms; to all the cleaning crews at every facility the vaccine touched; and everyone else who made this possible.

I’ll continue to wear a mask and social distance, but a huge weight has been lifted from me. (And all you maskless people whom I encounter on walks around the People’s Republic—you’re still self-centered, irresponsible douchebags. Mask up, morons!) At the end of the month, I can meet my vaccinated friend for coffee without fretting about being a carrier. I can think about taking a trip later this year. I can play with the notion of going into the office, maybe.

But right now, I’m just grateful.