I Got My First Dose of the COVID-19 Vaccine

Yesterday afternoon, I received my first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine—a free vaccination organized by the community. I will receive the second dose on March 1, 21 days later. After seeing the vaccination notice posted by the community, I did not think too much about it; I just registered my information and went to get vaccinated.

Many people have asked me lately whether the vaccine can be taken and whether there are risks in getting vaccinated. It is hard for me to answer these questions. A completely risk-free vaccine does not exist, but overall, the risk of vaccination is not great. So many people have already been vaccinated with China's domestic vaccines in the earlier phase, and reports of serious side effects from various countries are not numerous.

Moreover, vaccination to achieve herd immunity is currently the only feasible way for global cooperation to solve COVID-19. In this sense, vaccination is not only a protection for oneself and one's family, but also a duty each of us should fulfill. So I chose to get vaccinated.

Although I have underlying diseases, under my own treatment they have been very well controlled, so I was not worried that the vaccine would cause me major side effects. In fact, I am writing this article 27 hours after being vaccinated; in the past 27 hours, I have had no obvious side effects. I cannot answer the question of whether one should be vaccinated; I can only use my own actual actions to show everyone what I did.

If you plan to get vaccinated, I suggest you rest well before vaccination and ensure adequate sleep, and also rest well after vaccination; this way the likelihood of side effects arising at the time of vaccination will be much smaller.

After vaccination, I still plan to keep wearing a mask until COVID-19 is completely brought under control, because there is no 100% effective vaccine. I do not want to be infected, nor do I want to transmit COVID-19. For the land and rivers to remain safe, everyone needs to make some contribution.

Vaccination has many benefits. Currently, vaccines on the market around the world can basically achieve 100% immunity against severe disease. This means that after vaccination, even if infected with COVID-19, it will only be a mild or moderate case that does not require hospitalization, so the significance of vaccination is great.

Viruses in nature, like other living organisms, constantly evolve, following the basic laws of genetics; there are always some variations between offspring and parents. So might variant viruses emerge in the future that current vaccines cannot handle? This possibility exists. But I believe scientists around the world will also closely monitor this and promptly develop new vaccines effective against variant viruses, so people actually need not worry about the issue of viral variants. In an age of pandemic, we must trust science.