Just as when it looked like the worst was over, omicron arrived to spoil the party.  Now we have to get booster shots!

I believe in vaccines as I know firsthand that they work.  I had chickenpox when I was young and thanks to my vaccination, I only got a few bumps in my body.  No vaccines work 100% but they spare you the from the worst of the disease.  That’s the same with COVID-19 vaccines though I can’t blame people for being brand-conscious or completely hesitant because in the old days it took years to have one.  It’s the 2020s, we have supercomputers, artificial intelligence, and machine learning, among other things, so I don’t understand why people still think it should take long to develop one especially if there’s a potential for a huge financial incentive!  People shouldn’t underestimate what we can do when money is involved.  With that said, I admit I don’t subscribe to all vaccines—for instance, I never had a vaccine since I was little and don’t get yearly flu shots.  That’s why having back-to-back jabs within the same month was a record for me!  And until the end of 2021, we thought it was enough to tame the pandemic.

Now that the omicron variant’s here and my vaccine, Sinovac, was tested to be useless against it, I really don’t have much of a choice if I wanted to protect myself and the people in our household but to get a booster shot from other brands.  Despite some saying that omicron is “mild,” I still can’t afford to get sick or even isolated as I have dependents that need me to be able to get around.  Luckily, I didn’t have to wait too long and I got my booster shot early this month.  This time, it was Moderna.  And to be honest, had I gotten this one for my initial vaccination, I probably won’t be in such a rush to get jabbed again.  Nobody enjoys getting pricked!

I got my booster shot as new COVID-19 cases was starting to break records.  Omicron really exploded so quickly in this country where the majority got jabbed with Sinovac, upon our government’s insistence on the most expensive vaccine.  It was the time a lot of people I know, including their entire household, was testing positive.  It was only that day that I had the courage to step out of the house again and I was really glad that I got it in a familiar place—UP Diliman.

I don’t really remember when the last time I was inside the campus—pretty sure it was before the pandemic.  Immediately, I was reminded of the good old times when I was still running its tree-lined roads.  The greenery, fresh air, and calmness of the area was therapeutic to my weary mind.  If I didn’t just get jabbed that day, I may have stayed longer, perhaps did a few laps around Academic Oval.  But I was also concerned that side effects may start showing so as tempting as that idea was, I went home instead.

For what it’s worth, I felt the full reaction of my body to the vaccine that night which gradually subsided the following day.  It’s a small sacrifice to maximize my chance of being “safe” from getting sick.