Is it “Pandemic” or “Dem Panic”?

I prayed a lot about the bizarre array of coronavirus vaccines we have available, and as of yesterday, I felt peace about the Johnson & Johnson shot. Yes, it’s made using a cell line that came from the murder of an unborn baby. My take on that is not simple, and my decision took a long time to congeal. I would not accept a transplanted part from an unborn baby, but this individual died in 1985, the cells used came from cultures propagated since then, the pharmaceutical companies didn’t give us any appealing options, and for all I know, all the other vaccines I’ve received were made the same way.

Getting the shot I wanted was a big blessing. Florida is vaccinating like crazy, and most private providers, like pharmacies, are booked up for days. All of the providers that use the J&J vaccine were booked up as of yesterday, and J&J’s production was recently set back by an error that ruined 15 million doses, but today an obscure local pharmacy received a shipment, and I found out about it early on.

A lady in the waiting area wanted to know if the vaccine was a good choice for her. She said she got very ill for up to two weeks every time she took the flu shot. Two things popped into my mind: 1) hypochondria, and 2) the pointlessness of a shot that gives you a condition which is completely identical to the illness it’s supposed to prevent.

I can’t believe her story, because the flu itself usually isn’t severe, and it doesn’t last two weeks for most people. Why would anyone guarantee herself a two-week illness requiring bed rest in order to prevent a disease that only lasts a week? After a couple of bad experiences, most people would opt for the flu itself.

You rarely hear a man say flu shots make him sick. You rarely hear a man say, “Whenever I take the flu shot, I get the flu.” Seems like it’s always a woman. But the web says men are just as likely as women to be hypochondriacs. In my family, it’s a big problem among women but not the men. My aunt, my mother, and my sister have made lots of grave predictions and announcements about their health as well as other people’s.

Maybe the lady from the pharmacy was telling the truth, and her flu episodes have been worse than her vaccine reactions.

I hope I did the right thing, choosing to be vaccinated. I felt strongly that God was telling me to go ahead, but I could be wrong.

Now I’m wondering if I’ll have side effects. I think it’s extremely likely I had coronavirus a year ago. I had a fairly lengthy illness with symptoms consistent with coronavirus, after being exposed to international travelers. Here’s the question: will coronavirus itself give me any immunity to the vaccine?

I would think things would work both ways, but I’m no doctor. The vaccine uses an adenovirus. Maybe people react to the adenovirus as well as the covid material. If that’s true, I guess having covid will not block all of the shot’s side effects.

I don’t care. I’ve never had a noticeable reaction to any vaccine, as far as I can recall. I’m not all that snowflaky about my health. I’m just curious about what will happen.

I feel fantastic today. In fact, that’s how I generally feel. Lots of energy. I suppose it comes from prayer. I don’t know if my friends have noticed, but I’m never the one to say it’s time to stop what we’re doing because I’m tired or sore or whatever. It’s always someone younger than I am. I just realized that. If I started feeling bad, it would be very obvious because of the contrast.

The stats for the J&J vaccine are confusing and not simple. Some make it look inferior to the other shots, but there is additional information out there suggesting it’s better than the drive-by media’s typical presentations imply. It’s supposed to be a near-guarantee you won’t die from covid, so that’s good.

As I always say, if I can’t be raptured, I want to have my head taken off by a meteor. Failing those options, I definitely don’t want to go from covid.

The “guarantee” also includes severe illness and ICU treatment.

There is evidence the J&J vaccine may actually be superior to the other shots because it was developed later, so as usual when it comes to coronavirus, the correct conclusion is that no one really knows the truth. We don’t know why people hoarded toilet paper. We don’t know why states with lockdowns sometimes did much worse than states that respected people’s freedom. We don’t know why we all got fat in 2020. We don’t know why the flu disappeared this season. We just guess and guess and guess.

Whatever. I got the shot. Now I’m going to make pizza.