Month: July 2021

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Vaccinated, Part 2

When I wrote about getting my first shot of the COVID vaccine, I mentioned that my next shot was scheduled for September. How things change in a month! The province’s vaccine supply had improved to the point that I soon got a call from the pharmacy, wanting to move my second shot up.

So, last Monday, I travelled down to the pharmacy again, and got my second dose, fully two months ahead of when I expected I would. As others, including some members of my family, had mentioned, the second shot tends to hit harder than the first, and I was no exception; the following day had me more tired than I’d been in a long time. The following days saw me much improved, though with some aches that might have been from the vaccine, and might have been something else.

Of course, this doesn’t mean that I’m immune just yet; I have another week from this writing before my body has built up the immunity needed to keep this disease at bay. And, as we’re finding, the current vaccines are not the perfect fit for the newer variants, especially Delta. But even there, we’ve found that the vaccinations still provide significant protection; those who get COVID-19 after getting vaccinated have a far better chance of shrugging the disease off. Overall, I’m glad I had the shots.

I’ll be keeping masks ready at hand for a while yet; even though our province seems set to lift the health restrictions around the beginning of August (and our vaccination numbers suggest we might actually hit the provinces’ threshold more or less on time), there’s always the possibility that we may have another outbreak before or after. The more people we have vaccinated above the provinces’ set threshold of 75%, the safer we’ll be.

So if you’re hesitating on the vaccination, either because you fear the effects or don’t think you have to because of ‘herd immunity’, some friendly advice. Take the shots anyway. Bank on a day or two to take it easy, just in case you get knocked back as I did. If a fourth wave comes, you’ll be glad you did, trust me.

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Coming to Terms With Who We Are

A few years ago, I wrote a Canada Day post that reflected a little on our nation’s shortcomings and hoped we could move past them. In light of the revelations over the past year, I’ve come to realize that post was written from a perspective of privileged naivete.

As I write this, the nation is reeling from the discovery of three sites of unmarked and/or mass graves, each site corresponding to a site where a Residential School once stood. Each site filled with the bodies of Indigenous children who died at those “schools” as part of the genocide the governments of the day waged against the First Nations people within our borders. Right now, the tally stands at over 1,000 children buried at these sites. Now that there’s an active push to examine the Residential School sites across the country, that number can only be expected to rise.

In between the discoveries, other examples of the deeply rooted and systemic racism within Canada have revealed themselves. In early June, a man in London, Ontario, took a vehicle and ran over a Muslim family, killing all but one nine year old child. A former intelligence officer has recently spoken out on systemic racism and harassment within CSIS, Canada’s intelligence agency. Another report records several racist incidents at one of Canada’s busiest border crossings. The first black leader of a federal political party – Annamie Paul of the Greens – is under fire from her own party, and faces a no-confidence vote.

My post in 2018 operated under the assumption that Canada was not, at heart, a racist country; we had our flaws, true, but we just needed to work at them. But now, faced with the mounting evidence, it is time to come to terms with who we are. Who we really are.

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