Sunday is Valentine’s Day, that special day for your sweetheart.
Wives and girlfriends always are zeroed in on this day.
Husbands and boyfriends usually need a reminder. So, guys, here is your reminder. Valentine’ Day is just six days away.
If you haven’t purchased that special gift, now is the time. And don’t forget the Valentine’s Day card. It’s more important than the gift, and any wife or girlfriend will tell you so. BTW, don’t just write “I love you,” and sign your name. Tell her why you love her. And, ladies, tell him why you love him, too.
And, guys, if you don’t feel comfortable taking her out for dinner because of the health pandemic, put on your apron and grill her a steak. Don’t forget that bottle of red wine and a red rose. She’ll surely appreciate the thought.
Treat her like a queen.
Treat him like a king.
***
The first Pizer vaccine is in my left arm.
So is the second.
“Your arm may be a bit sore tomorrow,” the nurse at the Cape Fear Valley Medical Center Rehabilitation Center said on Feb. 5 after the second injection. “If you have a headache, take a Tylenol or Motrin.”
My arm was “a bit” sore a day later.
There was a slight headache.
Otherwise, no issues.
All of us have our opinions on the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines being offered in this community in the fight to hopefully protect us from being infected by the global coronavirus that has wreaked such havoc on our lives.
Many community residents welcome the opportunity for the vaccines.
You will find them from age 65 and up at the Cape Fear Valley Medical Center’s Rehabilitation Center and at the Crown Center off of U.S. 301 business.
‘I Did Just Fine’
“Anything to keep me from dying,” Sarah Burns, 68, said after receiving her first vaccination on January 26 at Cape Fear Valley Medical Center.
Mrs. Burns said she is scheduled to receive her second vaccine, aka the booster, on Feb. 16.
“I did just fine,” Mrs. Burns said Monday about her first vaccination. “No problems.”
She is an advocate for all of us to take the vaccinations.
“I’m encouraging everybody I can,” Mrs. Burns said.
Mrs. Burns, an African American woman, acknowledges there are those in the black community who are hesitant to be vaccinated because they are suspicious of health care, i.e. the Tuskegee Study, circa 1932-1972, for black males being treated for syphilis and who were misled in the study by the Public Health Service.
“So many things went wrong with our race,” she said.
Then-President Bill Clinton in 1997 apologized for the unethical health care of the Tuskegee Study.
More Than 200 Deaths
There are others, too, who are skeptical and indifferent to the vaccines, as well as the ideas of face masks and social distancing. And no matter the color of their skin. The downtown bar district near Raymond James Stadium in Tampa Bay, Florida, site of Sunday’s LV Super Bowl, was a prime example, where crowds, according to a CNN report by Randi Kaye, were in the thousands prior to the championship game. And many, from what I saw, were not wearing masks or socially distancing.
I am not indifferent to the vaccines.
I take serious COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus.
More than 20,500 in this community have been infected, according to a Cumberland County Department of Public Health news release via the county, and there have been more than 200 deaths.
A vaccination is a personal decision.
If you choose to be vaccinated, the Rehabilitation Center is open from 7 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tuesday through Friday at Cape Fear Valley Medical Center, where those 65 and older and health care workers are being vaccinated; and from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. this week at the Crown Complex for ages 65 and up and health care employees with direct patient contact and long-term health care workers.
Only second doses of the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines are available today, according to a county news release, with first doses Wednesday of Moderna and second doses of Pfizer and Moderna. First doses of Moderna and second doses of Moderna and Pfizer will be available Friday.
Epilogue
I am told by health professionals in this community that I will be 53 percent protected as a result of my first vaccination, and 95 percent protected after the second. The vaccinations, however, are not a license to discard my N95 face masks or disregard social distancing.
I welcome both of my vaccinations, and I’m grateful.
But for you, a vaccination is your decision, and your decision alone.
Bill Kirby Jr. can be reached at bkirby@cityviewnc.com, billkirby49@gmail.com or 910-624-1961
