My Vaccination Experience (Part 2)

 My Vaccination Experience (Part 2)

    Small Editor's Note: Farren was extremely passionate whilst writing this article. He says it's because it is the longest he has ever gone without blogging, a total of 18 Days. He has been coping with school and stress and a sore ache on his right arm that refuses to leave. 

When COVID-19 first burst into the world, our world turned upside down. But as we all locked ourselves home, we were awaiting a day. The day when we could gain true immunity from the virus. But many experts and scientists thought that day would take two years or maybe even longer. After all, the process of developing a vaccine could take half a decade or even a full one. Scientists had to squish a 10-year process into less than a year. And they had to do it fast. The virus wasn't just gonna stop spreading and await a vaccine! 

    But that day came faster than anyone expected. It came only about a year since COVID-19 broke out in Wuhan, China. And less than half a year since that very day, we now have about 12% of the Global Population fully vaccinated. Countries like Singapore and New Zealand have even higher percentages at roughly 30-40% while the crown champion of vaccination was Israel which did it in record speed. I talked more about this in another article dedicated to vaccinations which you can click here to read. Anyway, thank you to all the scientists and experts and everyone who have been working tirelessly to produce true immunity to COVID-19! Now let's continue from My Vaccination Experience (Part 1). 

    As mentioned, my second shot was in July. But a lot happened between June and July. First of, Singapore re-relaxed it's COVID-19 measures on June 13 and then again on June 21. And for a while, Singapore's daily local cases dropped to a single-digit number of around 2-4 cases per day. Measures were relaxed again on 12 July before, on the day of my second dose, a new cluster emerged with a new record of 56 COVID-19 cases in a single day. But that is a story for another time. 

    When writing the first article, I forgot to mention a very specific detail. That was that the duration between your First Dose and Second Dose had been extended by Singapore's Government so that more people can get protection a shot of the vaccine. So, when my first shot was administered, I had to wait 8 weeks before heading back for the second jab. But, when measures were relaxed, I was given the opportunity to bring forward my administration of my second dose. And that is where our story starts...

June 21, 2021

The 'Bring Forward' Day

    So I got an interesting message. A message that told me that I was given the opportunity to bring forward the day of my Second Dose. First of, I was hesitant. After all, there was no point pushing back my second dose. So I waited. And continued to wait until I decided to bring forward to the 15th of July. Why did I change my opinion on this? Well, in a more unpleasant way of saying it, I wanted to "Get This Over With". To just complete my vaccination so that I don't have to worry about it. With my second dose date brought forward, I was ready to head back to Raffles City (Vaccination site) exactly one month later...

July 15, 2021

The Day of the Second Dose

   Heading back to Raffles City brought a seemingly small halo of nostalgia. And my body began to tense up once again. I arrived this time way more prepared than before after forgetting to bring my Identification Card for my first dose which seriously affected my experience

<04:16pm> Walking back up the steps to the Vaccination Centre, I immediately noticed that they have changed the layout of the queue. This was because Singapore also opened up another age group (16-39) to get jabbed. So there were now two queues. One for the public and the other for students. 

<04:21pm> So I seemed to have hit the most quiet time to get vaccinated. I assume no one gets vaccinated at 4 in the evening but for my first dose, the centre was flooded with people. Another point, the other time I complained that the COVID-19 Vaccination Booklet was not up-to-date, the Ministry of Health (MOH) have since updated the booklet so hooray for everyone, I guess.

<04:27pm> Well that was quick! I have been stabbed twice in a single year now and the process was extremely smooth this time around. Last time, the process took about 100 minutes to complete. Now, it only took about 45. Overall, the process has definitely improved since the first dose.

July 16, 2021

The After Effects

    Literally half my day was wasted. It was an interesting day to say the least. My arm ached sorely immediately after I was jabbed and that ache continued. As of July 17, it still ache when my arm is positioned awkwardly. I did have a small fever of about 37.8°c for much of the morning but it eventually subsided at roughly 4 in the evening. 

 The Perfect Conclusion

    So I usually write a draft about a certain topic before beginning and when reaching the conclusion, I couldn't think of a way to end of this article. Most of the article was written on 15 July 2021 and as of writing, it's the 18th. 

    There are trillions and billions of scenarios of how this article will end. But only one scenario is the perfect one. This is that perfect one...

Happy Reading! 

> This article has not been sponsored by the Ministry of Health (MOH) nor the Ministry of Education (MOE)