I pride myself on putting in the time and doing the research. I also come from a family where logic tends to over-rule emotion. Yeah, doesn’t make me the life of the party but it does mean, when you’re in my circle, I’ll always have your back.

Which is why, despite all of the negative press, I’m excited about Jim’s appointment to get the first dose of the Covid-19 vaccine.

I’ve never been one for making decisions from reading headlines. Headlines are attention grabbers, not summaries and are often misleading. The one or two minutes the television news spends on an update doesn’t impart the entire story. I sincerely doubt that anyone dealing with the disease, the vaccine, the purchasing contracts, or the distribution processes is running around with jazz hands shrieking ‘whatever will we do’. For a project this size to even begin, there had to be a cohesive plan that  could be adjusted as necessary – and there are a lot of adjustments necessary when dealing with international manufacturing and distribution. And while I’ve read the conspiracy theories, they require a helluva lot more coordination than the egomaniacs in charge would ever be able to accomplish on a scale this big. After all, if the ‘good guys’ are having this much trouble keeping it together then why would the ‘bad guys’ be so flawlessly successful? Think about it.

In my humble opinion, this is an expected mutation of disease. Full stop. It couldn’t be prepared for because there were too many plausible, worldwide possibilities to predict (which disease would mutate, how would it mutate, when and where and why. Which of the millions of yearly mutations would happen upon suitable conditions in order for it to mutate in a way that would become harmful). Having said that, we did have various existing foundations to work from to find the answers, thanks to previous mutations that threatened the health and safety of humans. Sure, there were missteps in the beginning due to pride, blame shifting and the incredulous disbelief that this time the threat was real.

We are all only human, with human fallibilities, get over it.

I’ve been watching the development of vaccines. Reading entire articles and falling back on not only what I learned in biology and chemistry but also what I learned from my grandparents as they ran greenhouses and livestock. They were the feet on the ground, dealing with the health of crops and animals everyday.

So, it is with an educated enthusiasm that I look forward to Jim’s vaccination today.

Because of illness (non Covid related), some of his family will be traveling to satay with us soon and I need Jim to have whatever protection is available. For Jim’s mental health, he needs to be able to go out for more than groceries once a week. I’ve noticed his decline has hastened over the winter when he couldn’t even sit outside. He needs to be protected in case there is an emergency and we have to go to the hospital. The benefits far outweigh the risks.

I will be even more excited when they get to my age group.