The vaccination process at Te Rito in central Whanganui was simple, writes Leigh-Marama McLachlan. Photo / Bevan Conley
The vaccination process at Te Rito in central Whanganui was simple, writes Leigh-Marama McLachlan. Photo / Bevan Conley
Opinion:
It's been a busy few days in town as we find ourselves coming out of the harsher restrictions of level 4 and 3 and readjust to life with friends and whānau and more freedoms at level 2.
For the most part, the kids are back at school, and Iam looking forward to returning to the office next week and starting to get back to our normal routine.
There's something strange that happens for me during lockdown and I think it is largely a result of the isolation, but I feel a little overwhelmed by the notion of venturing out and returning to the status quo.
For working parents, we can feel guilty for not spending as much time with our children as we would like, and those thoughts compound after a lockdown when we've had all that extra time together.
In any case, I am relieved to be back at level 2 and I am stoked that our community kept Covid-19 out. Congratulations to everyone for their hard-fought effort to keep each other safe.
The misery of lockdown for me has dissipated. I love being able to see my family and I have no qualms about scanning in and wearing a mask whenever I'm out and about.
It appears many of you are the same - I had to circle twice to get a park up the Avenue the other day. I hope this is paying off for our business owners and retailers who have done it really hard during lockdown.
Let's get out there and support our local businesses – the massive franchises have a better chance of riding these lockdowns out, so I am making a conscious effort to buy locally.
While it's easy for many of us to swing back into things, there are some obvious lessons from this outbreak and the new Delta variant of Covid-19 that we cannot take lightly.
The nation went into alert level 4 when we had identified just one case of Covid-19 and within less than a month, even under lockdown, more than 800 people became infected with the virus.
Sadly, this outbreak claimed the life on an elderly person and has put about 40 people in hospital, with more than a handful in the intensive care unit as they fight to combat the virus.
This Delta strain is on another level and the reality is we could be thrust back into lockdown in a heartbeat should it manage to find its way back into our community.
We need to be prepared for this which is why I went ahead and booked my first dose of the Pfizer vaccine the other week.
My partner and I went on the Book My Vaccine website and found it quite straightforward. We entered our details and where we lived, and it came back with a bunch of places that were offering the vaccine.
We chose the closest facility, and it gave us a bunch of dates and times when we could book. It was very easy, and we had our first appointments booked within days at the new Te Rito centre in town.
The whole process was simple – we waited in line with our masks on, they took our names and then we sat down and waited for a few minutes before being called over by one of the nurses.
It was great because my partner and I could go in together, which made me more relaxed. The nurse calmly talked us through the process and made it feel really comfortable.
He asked me which arm and gave me one, quick, painless injection. Then we had to sit and wait for 20 minutes before being told we could go home.
I was really impressed with just how smoothly everything went, and it was over in half an hour.
That afternoon, I felt a little faint and a bit off for the next morning but nothing major. They told me to drink lots of water. My arm was a little sore but within 24 hours I was good as new.
Getting the vaccine felt like a weight had been lifted off my shoulders. We know from overseas evidence that Delta is extremely infectious and can attack younger people, including babies.
It did rattle me when I found out that someone had died after getting the vaccine, but it did not deter me because Covid-19 presents more danger to me and my family than the vaccine itself.
We have had more than 3800 cases of Covid-19 in Aotearoa, and it has killed 27 people. We have administered four million doses of Pfizer now with few problems in the greater scheme of things.
Several babies were hospitalised in Aotearoa during this outbreak and the thought of it spreading through our whānau, our hapū, and our wider community is not a risk I am willing to take.
What we are already seeing is that the risk of infection and hospitalisation decreases when you are fully vaccinated. I got vaccinated for me and my kids as much as I did it for the wider good.
Whanganui is tracking nicely with more than 56,000 doses administered here which means we have more than 36 per cent fully vaccinated.
Nationwide only about a third of the country is fully vaccinated and it won't be until closer to 90 per cent of us are immunised before we will be able to have any real discussions about opening the borders and what that looks like.
I don't know about you, but I am keen for the time to come where we won't be at the mercy of this terrible disease and snap lockdowns, but it will take plenty more of us to do our bit to get there.
It may not be the case that you personally feel threatened by the virus harming you, but we never know who is vulnerable around us and who may not be able to fight it off if we spread it.
We all have our own experiences and views that inform our decisions, but I put my faith in the experts, and I am doing whatever I can to protect myself, my family and my community that I love.
