Tag: CDC

Day 268: Another Vaccination and Chat with Clare

~ Dona ~ 1 Comment

This morning I received my second shingles vaccination. While the side-effects were not delightful, the feeling of having all my old lady vaccinations done is.

I had a delightfully long (2 hour) phone call with Clare last night. Among other things, we discussed the CDC’s new mask guidelines and agreed that we thought it was wrong and too early. I, however, pointed out that the CDC is not a policymaking organization, but one that provides guidelines based on science. Clare reminded me that the CDC did make a judgment call back at the beginning of the pandemic when masks were in short supply and we were encouraged to not wear them so the hospitals and first responders had enough. She suggested that the CDC could have done the same this time by not posting the new guidelines that masks are unnecessary for fully vaccinated people. The CDC is not filled with stupid people and it has to have known that antivaxers might take advantage of the fact that it is impossible to know if someone is vaccinated or not by just looking at them.

In the end we agreed that everyone needs to be critical thinkers. And we’ll continue to wear masks for the time being.

Day 264: Happy

~ Dona ~ 2 Comments

As is my semi-regular habit I awoke in the early hours of the morning and couldn’t get back to sleep. I went to the living room and poured myself a large glass of water and looked at my phone and then read more of Life After Life. I’d not read in a while, so it felt good.

After a couple of hours and more glasses of water I went to bed to read a little more and suddenly realized I was very happy. It could have been the water — perhaps I was very dehydrated. It could have been the reading. Perhaps it was having gotten out of the house yesterday. Whatever it was, it was delightful.

When I awoke a second time, this time at a more reasonable hour, I still felt happy.

Another delightful thought is that as of 12:30 pm I am fully vaccinated. While I received my second dose on the 29th, today marks the end of my two week waiting period. And as of 2:00 pm the CDC stated that fully vaccinated people can lose their masks in most cases, inside and out.*

The peony bloomed. That’s a delight!

*This is a double-edged sword of a delight. It goes without saying that many, if not most, anti-vaxers are likely to also be anti-maskers and since no one knows if they are vaccinated or not, they might not wear masks either. This is a problem for children (who at this time cannot be vaccinated) and many other people including those who are immunocompromised. While I understand that the CDC is only stating facts and is not a policy making organization, hopefully individual jurisdictions and businesses will either keep the mask policy or require anyone who doesn’t want to wear a mask to show proof of vaccination.