VACCINES AND VETS

 

Last week I adopted two kittens. They were already neutered and had been given their initial vaccinations. But the second round of vaccinations is due. We haven't had pets for a long time, so I phoned the animal hospital we once used although the vet who works there now is the third or fourth owner of the place. I was surprised when they told me the earliest available appointment was in February. So I asked for a reference to another vet, and was able to get an appointment two weeks from now. During the Covid-19 period, when socializing is very limited, people must be relying on their pets for affection and fun. My kittens are not affectionate yet --- they're still skittish around people --- but they're certainly entertaining. 

While I was concerning myself with kitten vaccinations, announcements were coming at the rate of one a week about vaccines against Covid-19 that had completed phase 3 trials, and would probably soon be approved for emergency use. Although there are still some questions about the details, the vaccines are apparently safe, and quite effective. 

My husband and I are both over 80 and therfore may be among the earlier groups to be offered a C-19 vaccine. Should we take it? We decided, yes. But that still doesn't mean we'd feel safe to go out and socalize freely. The phase 3 trials did not test the trial subjects for the disease, but only relied on the presence of symptoms. There may have been many more people in the trials who were infected and infectious, but who were asymptomatic. 

I was reminded of the polio vaccines that were developed in the 1950s and 1960s. That disease was not as infectious as Covid-19. But experts were not sure how it was spread; public swimming places were one possible place of contageon. Since it affected children more often than adults, parents were terrified, and when a case was diagnosed in my small town, the news spread immediately on the local grapevine. Before a vaccine was available, children were given injections of gamma globulin in an attempt to boost their immune systems. Then in the 1950s the Salk vaccine, also given as an injection, was widely distributed. A few years later, the Sabin oral vaccine was released; it was poured onto to sugar cube and eaten, a much easier means of administration. Even people who had taken the Salk vaccine were advised to take the Sabin version. 

The new Covid-19 vaccines are a great step forward. I suspect that whichever vaccine we receive first, there will be successor vaccines that are better and more easily administered and that as they become available, each of us will have the option of a taking the newer version. But even after we're vaccinated, my husabnd and I are committed to continuing to wear masks when we're out, and to limit socializing. It may be another year before some of the questions about the vaccines have been answered, and we feel that our lives are beginning to return to normal, whatever that turns out be.