MEDIUM RARE
Jullie Y. Daza
There I was, telling everyone with time and ears to listen how my vaccination was so efficiently done, painless, and negative for adverse reactions.
When all that time I had no idea how perfectly possible it would’ve been to be “inoculated” without any drug going into my skin beyond its epidermis!
Upon reflection, however, why would any vaccinator deliberately deprive a vaccinee of his/her rightful vaccine, paid for by the government?
“You have such faith in humanity!” cried the cynic beside me. “What other reason is there but to sell the unused vaccine?”
How much would the going price be, if that were so? And how to keep the vial in a bag without the vaccine losing its efficacy as soon as an increase in temperature kicks in?
Next question: What happens now to our so-called vaccine confidence after overcoming a prolonged struggle with vaccine hesitancy?
In fairness to our heroic frontliners, it’s not their fault that cynics and skeptics are now coming out of the woodwork. After Makati’s experience there’s one more reported in Mandaluyong. With more to come? To be fair, DOH is investigating the first incident even as Makati Mayor Abby Binay has accepted the volunteer nurse’s apology, calling her mistake a “human error” brought about by nervousness and overwork.
When I congratulated Amy, the nurse who gave me both jabs for sparing me from certain pain, she said with 100 percent self-assurance, “TLC is my name.” Watching her at work, I could not guess how she’d be able to stand straight after jabbing 100 persons for eight hours with only a short break in-between. Every vaccinator stands and bends a little from the waist to prepare and complete the shot. Try doing that and see how long you can last on your feet. Also, you must expertly hold the syringe, puncture the lid of the vial, and push the plunger into a human arm. A bit of training or retraining does it, but in Amy’s case, it’s her years of being a nursing, caring professional.
I’m happy to believe that the army of nurses, midwives, pharmacists who jabbed millions of us are more like Amy than the one or two who inadvertently made headlines and almost gave some of us a nervous breakdown.