Vaccinations

I’m an obsessive compulsive record-keeper at it has been a challenge to resist recording everything on my blog during the pandemic – so much has been made confidential or professionally prohibited that I’ve taken to just staring at plants grow in the garden and hope to forget 2020. For example, last week the TGA announced some confusing rules about COVID vaccinations and advertising just to silence doctors publicly discussing relative merits of different types of COVID vaccines online. It’s all become exceedingly Orwellian while simultaneously revealing how little reserve our healthcare and political systems really have for challenges. Thankfully for my home state we’ve kept ourselves isolated so haven’t had to test our preparations, whatever they might be (I’m still not fit-tested, whatever that is, better not be important).

Bumped into Jeanette at the vaccine clinic.

This morning, as I worked my session in private, I noticed colleagues at major teaching hospitals declaring on WhatsApp their newly vaccinated statuses. I thought radiologists in public were category 1b and our group hadn’t started yet? Turns out vaccine supply exceeded demand, and walk-ins were being encouraged out of schedule. I left my desk at BreastScreen in East Perth, drove straight across town and signed up, along with many other hopeful staff that had wandered into PCH. Bit weird for a Friday afternoon to have surge of capacity in healthcare. I started a weekend on call in two hours, maybe it wasn’t a good idea to get vaccinated before three nights’ on call. I was handed a ticket: #58. Turns out you have to thaw the vials for three hours prior to use and word of mouth created demand that exceeded supply, so I went back across town after booking in for Sunday morning instead.

It’s a raining overcast day and, unlike Tuesday, nobody turned right into oncoming traffic on Rokeby Rd while I waited at a red light.