Getting the COVID-19 vaccine as a healthcare worker

When I first applied for my job as a nursing assistant a few years ago, I never thought that I would be working on the front lines of healthcare during a global pandemic, and I scarcely believe it now.

There was no way to foresee this disease before it emerged in China and spread to the rest of the world, but it is partially due to the disregard for it among Americans that has contributed to it spreading so drastically throughout our nation.

When Pfizer released the first COVID-19 vaccine, people began to come up with many outlandish ideas about what would be in them. One man confidently informed me that with the shot you are given, they also insert microchips into you so the government can better control your mind.

Another person told me that people who get the COVID-19 vaccine will have the “mark of the beast” as mentioned in the Bible, and they will not be admitted into Heaven because they did not trust God to get rid of the disease on His own.

And one of the biggest conspiracy theories that I have heard since the beginning of the pandemic, which happens to be my favorite, is that COVID-19 is just a stunt that the government is pulling because 2020 was an election year.

Ballad Health sent out a memo saying that they would be offering the COVID-19 vaccine for free to employees and after one day of mulling it over, I decided to get the vaccine.

Yes, I am still alive. No, I have not grown a third arm or a conjoined twin on my hip, and I don’t have any evidence of being infertile. With the first dose, the only symptoms I had were a mild headache and slight nausea.

The second dose, however, gave me a run for my money. My thermostat had been broken a few days before I got the second dose, so I had been shivering myself to sleep for the past few nights and I did not think anything of the chills I was having the night I got the second dose. The day after, I had a whopping headache and felt nauseous and sore all over.

As with any vaccine, my arm felt like it was going to fall off with both doses, but here I am a few weeks later using the hand from that same arm to type this article, so it is fine now.