Last Friday, I received my first of two COVID vaccines.
I waited ninety minutes in line, but it felt like only thirty. Waiting became an exercise in gratitude.
With my history of chronic upper respiratory infections, I was grateful to receive a dose of medication that’s been overwhelmingly validated by science. I am otherwise in good health for my age (walking twenty thousand steps a day never hurts). But I never mistook that state of health as a shield against this pernicious pandemic. We’ve all heard stories about the most robust among us who’ve fallen.
Slinking along my drive-through line, I also thought about the more than half-million people in the U.S. who’ve died of COVID. Many of the departed left more than loving memories among the living. They left flesh and blood family members of another species wholly dependent upon them.
Bo, a ten-year-old deaf and blind pug, had been fed homemade meals by his owner who died of COVID last spring. Unable to care for Bo, the victim’s extended family turned to Animal Haven, a New Your City animal rescue. Bo quickly found his second forever home. Others waited longer. Many found reprieve in nationwide “empty-the-shelter” events. A few waited the rest of their lives to be loved again.
There are several takeaways from this cold, hard reality. Establishing a pet trust would ensure that our pets are taken care of in case we become gravely ill or die. Pandemic or no, this should be part of our contingency toolkit. We could consider adopting a living product of COVID’s ravages. We can assist shelters in their ongoing efforts to provide low-cost medical service or temporary boarding so that at-risk families can ultimately stay together.
We can also get the vaccine. Put the odds in our favor. Give our pets the best chance at the forever home they always deserved — with us.
In this contentious and suspicious climate, many are still hesitant to get the COVD vaccine. But the facts are indisputable: with the vaccine, the risk of contracting serious COVD symptoms and dying is miniscule. The risks are far greater in not getting the vaccine. Herd immunity can only be achieved when at least seventy percent of the population is vaccinated.
At worst we incur some delay in scheduling the vaccine and long wait times once we show to our appointments. That time is nothing compared to the eternity spent by those who were never able to reap the vaccine’s benefits — and the pets who got left behind.
Don’t hesitate. Vaccinate.