Got COVID Vaccine First Dose Yesterday Morning

Very quickly after Florida's Governor DeSantis lowered the eligibility age for the COVID-19 vaccine from 65 to 60, effective March 15th, my local Alachua County Health Department messaged me to make an appointment...I just received my first Pfizer dose yesterday morning at the nearby Trinity United Methodist Church.  After seeing the initial problems on TV in various places across the state and country with elderly people waiting outside for hours, I was hoping that they had the bugs all worked out...and they did!  My appointment was for 9:30, I got there a few minutes early...and by my appointed time I was already in my post-vaccination 15 minute waiting period.  My second dose is scheduled in the same place three weeks from now...

It's been a year since our society went off on a major freak-out lockdown panic over this pandemic...unfortunately, the way I see it the lockdown part in hindsight was a bit overly draconian while I distinctly remember our nation's Surgeon General strongly urging folks NOT to wear masks at the time...he did a fast turnaround on that issue the following month, but the damage was already done.  Along with our then-President's cavalier, mocking attitude toward both the coronavirus and masks, tens of millions of Americans denied the severity of the outbreak, which to date is responsible for over half a million deaths over just a year's span in this country alone.  It is a modern miracle of partnership between science, technology, business, government and academia that a number of effective vaccines have been developed and produced on such a mass scale in such a short time span against a novel contagion like COVID-19.  The U.S., lagging behind the world with its lack of compliance and safety measures among the general population, is nevertheless leading it...along with the United Kingdom...in vaccinating its population.  But as our disease experts point out, the world's population needs vaccination as well because it is here where vaccine-resistant variants of the disease are arising.  I'm resigned to getting booster shots in the future if need be...just set up my appointment time and place.  I've also had my eyes opened wide as to the callousness and utter disregard for my health and that of my loved ones from those people around me who have refused to do a simple thing as wearing a mask in my presence while smiling in my face...