The Vaccine is Returning Things Back to (Somewhat) Normal

Hello!

    So far I have not had any side effects after the second dose of the vaccine which has been a surprising, but good, occurrence. I have also been quite surprised at how quickly the vaccine has been getting distributed. I thought that participating in the vaccine trial was going to put me ahead of the general population, however nearly all of my friends and family members have already gotten their second dose or are not far behind. The vaccine trial called and notified me that I have to go back home in another month to go in for an office visit. Although I really don’t want to go home again since I was just there, I did make this commitment and if I quit now all of the effort I have put in towards helping the scientific community would go to waste. 

    Another surprising event that occurred this week was the recall or pause on the Johnson and Johnson vaccine. One of my friends just got her J&J vaccine last week and another one drove to Santa Maria to try to get his this week but they turned him down at the site. I understand that there have been some blood clots caused by the vaccine, however it doesn’t seem right to stop distribution since there are so many medications that have such a higher risk for clotting, yet are still administered (shown in the diagram below).

    Not only has covid been on my mind this week in terms of the vaccine, I have also thought about it a lot in regards to school. I had my first midterm of the quarter this week, which I was slightly surprised about because it is only week 3. I am slightly bummed because I really like my classes this quarter but it is so difficult to find the internal motivation to really get invested and not just get by on the bare minimum.This is something that I know a lot of my other peers are struggling with as well, and as excited as we are to be able to go back to in person classes eventually, it is definitely going to be a hard transition and take a little bit for everyone to adjust back to normal. Everyone has very much created their own routine during this time, where they sleep when they want to, do school when they want to, and do whatever else when they want to with no real schedule or guidelines. This means that when we go back to having scheduled classes and in person tests, everyone is going to be a little thrown off from what they have become accustomed to in this past year. On a positive note, I was able to go to the recreation center this week since it finally reopened. The rec cen definitely was not as enjoyable as it used to be since there is a very limited amount of equipment you are allowed to use and it is all outside, but some gym is better than no gym and it is nice to see the school moving towards a more normal situation again. 

    Lastly, I met with my group for our covid group project this week and we are starting to get very excited about our topic. We all had some great ideas as to where we can get sources from to provide a complete perspective on homelessness during the pandemic and I am looking forward to seeing how it progresses. Additionally, I am also very intrigued to learn more about what all of the other groups chose as their topics and everyone’s approach to the final project.