Well, we've had a couple of noteworthy developments here stateside this week.
First, Joe Biden has issued a directive ordering all states to expand vaccine eligibility to every American adult by May 1st. I have no idea if this is feasible but I do applaud the effort and none of his aides came out to walk back the statement so it doesn't appear to be another Biden senior moment. Seems like availability projections have kicked up several notches since the Merck-J&J joint effort announcement and even my ass-backwards current state has a huge, six-figure stockpile of doses in cold storage right now. In any event, the news says that U.S. deaths and hospitalizations are down about 50% since January so regardless of these new "strains" things are definitely moving in the right direction. Hope the trend is similar in Japan. For the life of me I can't bring myself to watch the Japanese news with my other half so I never know what's going on.
Second, I promised I'd try to be the TAG vaccine guinea pig, and while I know several here have already gotten it, as promised, here I am to report that--through less than honest, less than upstanding means--I obtained my first dose of the Pfizer vaccine earlier today. For those of you interested or who may be able to gain access in Japan soon, I can happily report:
1) You don't feel shit. Seriously. The needle is long but apparently very, very thin. Feels like someone pushed on my arm with a fingertip briefly and it was over. Now I know how the non-Asian women who've been foolish enough to sleep with me felt.
2) Injection site pain is real. It's been about five hours, and every passing hour gets worse. But I'm prone to that sort of stuff, with flu and tetanus vaccines always making me sore. Not a big deal.
3) I was going to boast about how otherwise manly I am with zero other side effects, but in the past hour I've started to feel really groggy and borderline fatigued. Not even feeling inspired enough for that Saturday Night Shower Wank. I had just one celebratory beer so that's definitely not it. Something tells me it's going to be an early night. If this is how the first dose goes, I can only imagine how enjoyable the second is going to be.
Anyhow, apologies for being off-topic and possibly not making sense. Trump 2024!!