Chasing the Covid Vaccine

If anyone had told me a year ago that Covid would still be with us in July 2021, I would have thought the person lost his mind. On the other hand, if someone would tell me in July 2021 that Covid would be with us for another year or two I would believe him. I’m not an expert but I think the bloody virus is here to stay and we all have to learn to live with it.

However, Canada has finally woken up from it’s sleep and started substantially vaccinating the population. I still think it is a little bit too late. The reason is because the longer the virus is with us, the bigger the chance it will develop a different mutation. And that can put us at increased risk even if we are vaccinated. The mistake that Canada made was in delaying buying the vaccine. When the government finally bought them, they couldn’t buy enough as the supply wasn’t available.

Due to the lack of vaccine, the authorities decided to get as many people vaccinated with one dose which gives you 45% protection and the second one four months later. This delay between the two doses is against the pharmaceutical companies protocol. Meanwhile it has recently taken a turn and the Ontario government is now accelerating second doses (this information is correct as of July 2021).

Anyway, before the authorities decided to accelerate the second dose, my husband and I looked at an option to get vaccinated overseas. I objected to getting the first dose unless I received the second one after three weeks. However, my husband got the first dose in May and was booked for the second one in September. We debated for a couple of months what to do to complete the process.

I thought since I had not seen my family for almost two years maybe this was an opportunity for us to visit them and be vaccinated there if we are lucky. But this was impossible. I don’t know what I was thinking…… In order to travel overseas and be vaccinated, you need to take at least five weeks vacation. People who travel out of the country and weren’t vaccinated go into quarantine between 10 days to 2 weeks.

Let’s assume you would get the first dose after 2 weeks, then you have to wait three weeks for the second dose. It was too complicated so we decided to give up on this idea. Then someone told my spouse he could be vaccinated in the States. He said he did it there. Once we heard this, we started chasing our tails. We wanted to cross the border in Buffalo by car, be vaccinated, and come back the same day.

We tried to receive any information we could get. But we soon learned that this option was out of the question for us. Canada and the US decided to close the border in March 2020 and extended the directive on a near monthly basis since then. The only people who are allowed to cross the border are essential workers such as healthcare professionals and delivery drivers, etc.

Anyhow, if we were able to cross the border even for several hours, in addition to PCR tests, we would have to go into quarantine for 14 days. Until a few days ago, if you arrived on a flight to Canada, the government forced you to quarantine for 3 days in a government approved hotel at your expense, while waiting for the test results. You had no say in it and it was non-refundable. Meaning if you don’t want to go to the hotel, you pay anyway plus you would be fined.

Thank God they cancelled the requirement for quarantine in a hotel at the beginning of July. This occurred after many people complained about it, and after experts maintained that it was unnecessary. Nevertheless, experts recently claimed that the effectiveness of the Covid vaccines has already decreased, despite the fact that some countries only started vaccinating their populations in December 2020.

But still the vaccines have helped to break the link between catching the disease and dying from it. We are all fed up with Covid and it looks like we cannot get rid of it anytime soon. There are countries like England that even though the delta variant has rapidly spread throughout the country, the government is considering lifting nearly all of it’s restrictions by the middle of July.

The reason for that is the decline in morbidity and severe illness. Furthermore, Pfizer is about to apply for US authorization for a third dose of it’s Covid vaccine. They said another shot within 12 months could dramatically boost immunity and possibly protect from the latest Coronavirus mutation. In the end, we will probably treat the Coronavirus like the flu. Yet in my opinion, many of us will maintain wearing masks in public places (I know I will) which has a huge benefit not just against Covid but for other diseases as well.