Family news: astrazeneca arrives in town

 As I have mentioned here before, our cook sleeps as the night watchman at Dr. Angie's office, often with her son when he is in town working. And two weeks ago, the wife of one of Dr. Angie's employees (a cousin of ours) got a mild case of covid, so they had to shut down and disinfect and quarantine for a week. No one else got sick, thank the Lord.

But now  our city has started giving out the covid vaccine to high risk folks: The cook is considered as high risk due to working at a medical office, hence she was screened and given an appointment to get the shot today at the local private hospital where Dr. Angie works.

She is not happy about this, of course, and when I told her to get the shot she said she wouldn't. But we still have the traditional family structures here, and since my husband Lolo died, Dr. Angie is the head of the family, so what she says is obeyed. The concept of family includes the family's long term servants who are considered as part of the family.

So I had Joy check with Dr. Angie if they are giving it out to elders, and she said they are starting registration and screening today at the local city Gymnasium. So we went and voila, long lines. But Joy went to a friend and she gave us an appointment to be screened at 1 pm and so we came back home.

The vaccine is the AstraZeneca vaccine: which is limited to older folks because of the problem of blood clots in younger women. There are still problems with allergies, TPP etc. but these are rare.

the plan is that this will only be given to the A1 thru A3 groups now: as an elder, I am in group A2. 

Joy is in A3 since she had cancer (?cured) but she is also in A1 since she is my caregiver, and so she is going to ask if she can get the shot too.

the gov't stopped giving the astrazeneca shot after reports of problems, but then decided it was safe for older folks (most of the clots were in women under 40). So they are giving it out before it expires, and have gotten new shipments that mean that they can give second shots to high risk patients in the high risk areas, and start giving it outside of the NCR (Manila area) where risk is lower.

Kuya is not getting the vaccine: because he is an anti vax type and won't even see a physician when he is sick, because he was raised as a doctor's kid, and just as preacher's kids turn atheist, or as the saying goes: cobbler's children go barefoot.

It rained two days ago, but it is again clear and very very hot. Kuya is still busy at the farm drying rice, and once the rain starts they will start preparing the fields.

I am staying indoors most of the time due to the heat, only going out in the early morning to let the dogs out into the garden to do their thing, and to feed the fish, and then in the late afternoon to walk the dogs.