So here we are in the first month of the year 2021 and life continues to surprise us. An unprecedented riot took place in the American capitol, the new US president received office and the studies and vaccines for Covid are ongoing. Countries are going back into lockdown and one can’t help but wonder if amongst all this chaos will life ever go back to normal.

At the beginning of this pandemic, everything was still new and unprecedented, we believed the crisis was just going to take weeks or a month max. It was inconceivable that something like this would take this long and cost this many lives… Yet here we are almost a year later still struggling to breath through our masks, still wary of touching and being close to others and just when we thought things can’t get worse the virus starts mutating. This has been hard on us as adults and I hate to imagine what it’s doing to our children. Since the past year our children have been ordered to keep wearing their masks, to over sanitize and over wash their hands, to stay away from common playgrounds and friends and to, without prior notice, expect to return to homeschool because another student in their class who otherwise seemed fine, tested positive. No stability nor consistency in life anymore. Children today are living with the notion that the world they once ran and played carefree in with their friends is now a dirty place filled with germs and diseases.

I didn’t want this entry to be another sad recap of how life has become nowadays, but it’s hard focusing on anything else especially with the introduction of the new vaccines. Last year when this pandemic started taking control of our lives, the first thing I desperately wanted was for a vaccine to be produced. I was sure that as soon as there was a vaccine that this horrible nightmare would end, that there would be a magic cure to end it all. However, once the vaccines started emerging I started to get skeptical and the media as usual hasn’t made it any easier either. It was almost as if the media was determined to keep people on edge.

Today all around me family and friends are rushing to get the vaccine. People are scared and desperate for a way out of this mess and they are told that the vaccine is the only solution. The funny thing is I prayed and asked God for a sign on what to do regarding the vaccine and just when I finally felt that I was going to give the vaccine a try, I experienced my own brush with covid. It was like life wanted me to experience the matter before opting for the vaccine. During my isolation and as I started to slowly recover, I had a lot of free time to myself so I did more research online and watched several discussions by doctors on the vaccinations. I learned that vaccines usually take years to be approved and that despite the claims today that the vaccines being administered for covid are effective in preventing the disease to a high degree, the truth of the matter is there is still a lot we don’t know. Doctors still don’t know how long the efficiency of these vaccines are and what the long term side effects will be. The general consensus though is that the vaccines are generally safe, will provide a high rate of immunity, and will prevent any need for hospitalization should you still contract the virus. Countries are encouraging people to take the vaccine and some people feel they’re left with no other choice. It is believed, as with other vaccines in the past, that they could be the start to the end of this pandemic. It is also believed that the vaccine offers maximum protection to yourself and others. Sounds promising doesn’t it? I keep wondering though, that with so much still unknown about this new pandemic how were scientists able to generate a vaccine so quickly they believe to be the “cure”? If you still don’t know everything about the disease then how do you know exactly how to cure it? New strains of covid seem to be developing quickly, so now I’m also wondering wether the vaccine that is said to be effective today will still be effective next month or the month after it while the virus continues mutating?

It is a fact that people today are becoming more and lenient and more negligent towards following the proper health regulations and proper social distancing measures. As a result the disease is spreading far worse than ever before and several countries are locking down again. Hospitals everywhere are working at full capacity, often turning back patients and delaying major surgeries due to shortage of staff and supplies. My heart really goes out to the many people who got infected and needed hospitalization and are suffering far worse effects than I am. It also makes sense to me that health care providers exposed to hundreds of patients on a daily basis are encouraged to take the vaccine to stay protected. I can tell you from my experience that wether you are high risk or not the disease doesn’t just affect your body, it affects you emotionally as well. Being shunned away in isolation for many days and not allowed any contact with family and loved ones isn’t easy. I now know for sure that this is not something I want to go through again. So would the vaccine, despite being experimental be the right choice for me? Fortunately now I still have a few more months to decide after developing a natural immunity. The fact is vaccines since the beginning of the history of vaccines always caused a riot amongst people and there were always people who opposed them out of fear of the unknown. Today if you are brave enough to choose to take a fairly new, still experimental vaccine that promises to give herd immunity then I salute you. Good for you. And If you choose like me to wait a bit and see, then I fully understand and support you as well. What I don’t like seeing these days is a war arising amongst those who took the vaccine and those who didn’t and vice versa. Today many people who took the vaccine are acting superior and shaming or criticizing those who didn’t. We also see those who didn’t take the vaccine shaming and instilling fear in those who did take it. If this pandemic has taught us anything at all it would be that each person has to do what they believe is the right thing to do to protect themselves and those around them. There is no right or wrong way, this is all still so new to us and we are still learning new things everyday. This isn’t the time to judge. Some people are easy to comply with the solutions presented before them while other people prefer to take their time. Some people are skeptical about trying an experimental option regardless of what’s being promoted about it while others are willing to take the plunge. When we shame or criticize and coerce others to do what we think is right (our way or the highway) we are taking full responsibly of the outcome of what may happen to that person who was hesitant yet felt pressured to act in a certain way because of us. So before pointing fingers at one another and acting superior lets look at the facts again. The vaccines are still fairly new and new discoveries are still being discovered everyday. Vaccines may start to show a decline in the spread of the disease and could provide a hundred percent protection from need for hospitalization which will lessen the strain on the health care system. That being said, nothing comes without risks wether taking the vaccine or not. By taking it you are willing to try something new and I applaud you for doing that, and by deciding not to take it you are also willing to remain at higher risk of contracting the disease. Bottom line is there is no right or wrong way here, both decisions have their pros and cons. For those taking the vaccine though please keep in mind that you will still be expected to wear masks, to social distance and to practice healthy hygiene. Life will not go back to normal for you right away and the vaccine will not exempt you from practicing all the safety precautions you were expected to practice before. So please lets let go of this need to control and enforce our opinions on others. Why would you want to burden yourself with the added responsibility of making other people’s decisions for them and why would you want to make other people’s business your own? Don’t we all have enough on our plate already? So in conclusion, every person needs to do their own research and make their own conscious decisions like I’m trying to do here. It really isn’t anyone’s right to judge or shame those who choose to do things differently, it really isn’t about you. Do you really want to live in a world that on top of racial inequality, sexism and pandemics is creating divisions and conflicts amongst people over a vaccine??!