Thursday 28 Mar 2024
By
main news image

This article first appeared in Capital, The Edge Malaysia Weekly on May 10, 2021 - May 16, 2021

Many of my friends won the “lottery” last week. Me … I did not even buy a ticket.

This is Aunty KayEl, by the way. I live in Puchong, Selangor. The lottery I meant was the chance to get one of the 268,000 AstraZeneca (AZ) vaccination slots that had been up for grabs for KLites and Selangorians on May 2.

That fatefuI day, I woke up to find several of my WhatsApp chat groups sharing the link for the voluntary opt-in of the somewhat controversial vaccine. I ignored them.

My brunch plans with the ladies seemed more important at the time. My old friend Twinkle Li had dyed her hair blond and I couldn’t wait to see whether it looked as bad as it did in the photos she’d sent us from the hair salon. This pandemic makes people do strange things, I tell you. And then they blithely tell you “YOLO”, that term my niece always uses, by way of explanation.

But, back to the AZ vaccine. My mahjong buddies had told me some horror stories about it. Peggy, whose husband is a doctor, said her uncle’s best friend’s cousin twice removed had collapsed and died after receiving the shot in the UK. We listened, mouths agape. “Yes, ah?”

“Yaaa,” she said. “This blood clot thing, ah, better not play-play …  After all, we not so young already.” I nodded sagely and agreed. I pushed aside that tiny voice of reason in my head that went, “But what about all those millions of other people around the world that were more or less fine after getting the shot?”

Don’t get me wrong. I want to be vaccinated — and the sooner, the better. I had signed up months ago to get jabbed through the MySejahtera app, but there seems to be no appointment date forthcoming. I was secretly harbouring hopes of getting the Pfizer one. After all, if our ministers and politicians were scrambling for THAT one, it had to be THE one to get, right?

But, in all honesty, I was really okay about getting any vaccine — yes, even the made-in-China one. I might draw the line at Russia’s Sputnik V, though. I find it a little unsettling that a nation trying to showcase its current scientific capabilities would name the shot after something that the world first knew them for in 1957. But maybe that’s just me.

Anyhow, I returned from brunch that day all tired from fake-praising Twinkle’s loud new look, then perused my Facebook feed. I couldn’t believe my eyes. So many friends were trying their darnedest to get a slot even as others gleefully shared screenshots of their confirmed appointments.

I then checked my Whatsapp messages. The same was happening there. Wait, what? Even XXX (insert name of most clever but risk-averse friend) signed up for it? And Peggy too? Okay, by now, I was getting that unmistakeable FOMO feeling and it was growing by the minute.

I glanced up at the TV screen and it was all about the chaotic Covid-19 situation in India, with hospitals not having enough supply of beds or oxygen to support the hordes of infected. Gulp.

I can only think of one thing now. Must. Get. Shot. No matter which one.

I hurry into the link for the AZ shots. Nooooo! No more slots available. I would find out later that all 268,000 slots were snapped up in under four hours that day. Clearly, there was more demand for it than supply.

Serves me right. I should have done my own research and decided on what was best for me rather than listen to others. Now, I have to wait for the next round of the AZ lottery, as promised by our vaccination minister.

Bah. Stupid Peggy.

Save by subscribing to us for your print and/or digital copy.

P/S: The Edge is also available on Apple's AppStore and Androids' Google Play.

      Print
      Text Size
      Share