Masked and Vaxed

Hello there, I have big news to share. I have finally reached a new milestone in my life: I am fully vaccinated.

I had my Covid-19 vaccination on Friday of Memorial Day Weekend. I timed it perfectly. I had Saturday, Sunday, and Monday off of work, which I thought would serve me well if I had any adverse reactions.

Friday night I drove home from work and noticed that my arm hurt. I also noticed that I was experiencing chills; it felt like I needed to put on a sweater, which I ended up doing when I arrived home. I had goose bumps all night.

Saturday morning I woke up with a headache, and took a pain reliever. I had some chills, though I no longer had goose bumps. I felt stiff throughout the day. Not exactly achy, but not my normal self either. I felt fatigued as well, and ended up sleeping through most of the day.

Sunday morning I woke up and discovered I had a fever that had broken overnight. I felt fatigued, and again slept through the majority of the day.

Monday morning I was back to normal. I had no symptoms whatsoever, and was able to enjoy the day.

*

It has since been three weeks since Memorial Day Weekend. This means that the vaccine has had time to work in my system, and that I'm "fully vaxed." (I know that “vaxed” isn’t a proper word. I just like saying it, as it is a shortened version of “vaccinated.”)

In my city, the face mask mandate has been lifted. This means that anyone who is fully vaccinated may be in public without wearing a mask. However, stores and businesses are free to enact their own guidelines for mask usage. The larger stores have ended their mask mandates, while smaller independent stores are keeping theirs in place.

My library system has followed the city's guidelines: anyone who is fully vaccinated does not have to wear a face mask. If a person comes in the door not wearing a face mask, we assume they have been fully vaccinated.
 
As for staff, we are welcome to wear a face mask, or to not wear one, whichever we are most comfortable with. The majority of my co-workers wear masks daily. I feel more comfortable wearing a face mask at this time. I also put on gloves to handle returned materials. 

My coworkers and I hypothesized about the future, and if face coverings will be part of our daily lives as workers in the service industry. In years past, as we help numerous people, and handle hundreds of returned items every day, minor illnesses in the workplace were common. In this pandemic, none of us have gotten a head cold or have had the flu. The face mask might be the reason why. 
 

*

It's funny, thinking back to the early days of the pandemic. While in lockdown, most people did not have face masks. I remember watching tutorial videos on YouTube to learn how to make one myself. I made my first face mask out of a basket liner and elastic hair ties, as shown in the photo below. It wasn’t perfect, yet necessity is the mother of invention.

“Pandemic Week 3” by Esperanza Habla

When I went back into the workplace, after 9 weeks of lockdown, I owned two face masks. They were loose fitting, had long cloth straps that tied around the head, and made my glasses fog up. Weeks later I found cloth face masks with metal pieces at the nose, which prevented my glasses from fogging up. I ended up buying one for every day of the week, and washed them on weekends.

 

Wearing face masks did not come easily to me. It was hard to get used to wearing one, especially during an entire 8 hour shift. I remember feeling suffocated in those early days. Yet I knew it was important that I wear one. I remember telling my manager, “Until there’s a vaccine, I’m wearing a face mask.”

 

As of now, a year and a half into the pandemic, I don’t want to stop wearing a face mask, even though I am fully vaccinated. When out in public, people look at me strangely when they see me wearing a mask. Why are you in a face mask?!? their expressions seem to say. Why are you not in a face mask?, my mind wonders in kind.

 

Those of us who continue to wear face masks have been compared to Linus in the Charlie Brown series "Peanuts", who is always seen with his security blanket. While the comparison is at once insulting, it is somehow fitting; I once played Linus in an all-girl production of “You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown.”

https://www.peanuts.com/about/linus

There is an element of security about wearing a face mask. I am not ready to discontinue wearing a face mask, whether in the workplace or out and about in town, running a quick errand. I feel it is important to protect myself and others.

It is a strange time to be in, a year and a half into a global pandemic. I wear a face mask, I get groceries via curbside pick-up service, I don't go out to eat, I don't go out to see movies, I don't go out in public at all. This is exactly what my life was like pre-pandemic! 
 
No, that's not entirely true. Before the pandemic I would eat out occasionally, which is all that my food allergy would allow. I used to wait to see brand new movies when they came out on DVD or Blu Ray at my library.  However, I would go to the movie theater to see a movie I cared about, a movie I could not wait to see. The last movie I went to the theater to see was "Last Christmas", the movie based on the Wham! Christmas song. That was December 2019. Three months later, movie theaters were shut down, and remained closed for months.

*

Statistically, numbers of Covid cases are dropping across the country. Unfortunately, the number of people getting vaccinated has dropped as well. We aren't done with Covid-19 as of yet. Or, perhaps a truer statement is that the virus isn't done with us. 
 
I watched a television interview with an epidemiologist last week; the doctor spoke about the heightened risks of the Delta variant. The doctor reported that 10% of all Covid cases in the U.S. are the Delta variant of Covid-19. As it is a more contagious strain of the virus, and is deadlier than other variants, the Delta variant will soon become the dominant strain in this country. The Delta variant also has a higher potential of evolving into an airborne virus. If that happens, we could be back to shelter in place orders and lockdowns.
 

 *

Thankfully, life goes on. I am thankful to be alive and well, to be masked and vaxed, and to not have contracted the coronavirus. No one in my family has contracted the virus, which is a blessing. 
 
I know that, even though I have been vaccinated, I could still contract the virus. For now I will continue to wear a face mask, until I feel it is safe to go without one. If that means I wear one for six weeks, six months, a year, I will wear it, come what may. It’s my life on the line, and I have to protect myself. 
 
If I were to give any advice to anyone, I would say this: if you have not yet gotten a vaccination, please consider getting one. It could literally save your life.
 
Wear a mask. Get vaccinated. Do it for yourself, for the ones you love, and for the ones that love you.