Fully innoculated --- but still concerned ....

My two-week waiting period following the second dose of Moderna vaccine came last week and it's been a relief to feel safer. Not that I've done anything much differently --- still sanitizing, maintaining social distance and wearing a mask in public places where others are gathered. That will include church this morning, where it's mandatory.

But I've been reading a variety of worrying news reports this morning, including The Des Moines Register's lead story, "Iowa asks feds to withhold nearly 21,000 doses of COVID vaccine, as demand for shots ebbs."

Elsewhere, The Washington Post is reporting on the viral surge to record levels in India and other regions of the world without the luxury of excess vaccine or, in some cases, any vaccine at all. And The New York Times is focused on Michigan, where COVID-19 hospital beds are filling with younger people in part because older residents have been vaccinated and in part because the new viral strain circulating there seems to target the under-65's. Also, that an increasing percentage of those who have received the first dose of a vaccine are not returning for a second.

In Iowa, according to The Register, some 40 percent of us have received one dose; approximately 55 percent, two doses.

So why would the demand in Iowa decline so markedly? Some of the usual suspects probably are involved, but not dramatically so --- nut-case anti-vaxers, who always are with us; religionists who confuse what their gods can do with what they're expected to do for themselves; and conspiracy theorists who have convinced themselves that virus isn't real, but instead some sort of political plot.

Apathy and the old "it won't happen to me" approach probably take the biggest shares of the blame. 

With vaccine now freely available to everyone 16 and older there's really no excuse. We're fortunate to live in a state and a nation with a surplus. We all want life to return to normal, or at least to what the new normal will turn out to be. So for goodness sake, take advantage of the opportunity if you've not already.