Long-married couple vaccinated but feeling anxious for second dose

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This article was published 13/04/2021 (1986 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Two weeks after getting their first COVID-19 vaccine shots, Alma and Cyril Walker still use their sanitization station before setting foot outside their apartment.

The Winnipeg couple in their 80s joke they have enough sanitizers, disinfectant sprays and masks arranged on the table by the front door to open a shop. Each time Cyril brings home groceries, Alma wipes them down and even sprays the soles of his shoes, just to be safe.

For the past year, they’ve followed all of the rules and taken no chances.

Alma, who knows what it’s like to be in isolation for a previous illness decades ago, didn’t feel comfortable venturing into a grocery store until after she received her first vaccine dose.

Now, she and her husband of 62 years are part of a growing proportion of partially vaccinated Manitobans who are trying to cope with the uncertainty of the largest-ever immunization effort, caught in between relief and frustration as they await the second dose.

“This first shot, it’s great that we got it, but it doesn’t clear you. You still have to maintain the same precautions you were doing before.” -Cyril Walker

“This first shot, it’s great that we got it, but it doesn’t clear you. You still have to maintain the same precautions you were doing before,” Cyril Walker said.

“At least Alma and I, we’re lucky. We’ve got each other. We can stay in the apartment and we argue with each other or we entertain each other, whatever, but what is really bad is the seniors that are by themselves.”

Manitoba is not booking second-dose appointments. The province decided to delay delivering second doses until more Manitobans have had a chance to receive the first shot.

Although manufacturers for the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines initially recommended the second shot be administered three to four weeks after the first dose, several provinces decided to push off required second doses until they get a greater supply.

In early March, Canada’s National Advisory Committee on Immunization recommended second doses be delayed by up to four months, with the rationale Canada needed to speed up its vaccine delivery, and just one dose was shown to be 70 to 80 per cent effective.

For now, Manitoba task force is still trying to get out as many first doses as possible, weighing the greater good of increased immunity against individual comfort levels of the partially vaccinated.

”Even for those folks who have to wait for their second dose, they will be better protected if all the people around them have also received a first dose.”–Dr. Joss Reimer 

Manitoba’s vaccine rollout could change quickly to prioritize getting second doses in the arms of the most vulnerable, but for now, the plan is to stick with first-dose-only bookings, task force medical lead Dr. Joss Reimer explained during an April 9 news conference.

“For today, most jurisdictions are still seeing good protection after one dose, and the best way for us to prevent this third wave or at least prevent it from being larger than it needs to be, is to have as many people immune as possible,” she said. “So even for those folks who have to wait for their second dose, they will be better protected if all the people around them have also received a first dose.

“So we feel very comfortable with the continuing of that process for now, but we will never stop evaluating the science and making decisions as it comes in.”

There’s a greater appetite among some partially vaccinated Manitobans to see the data governments are relying on during this pandemic response, and retired university professor George Bednarczyk is among them.

“It may very well be a good idea (to delay the second dose), but there isn’t a whole lot of data indicating that that’s the wisest way to go, particularly with the populations that are the most vulnerable. That’s kind of a general concern for everybody,” the 71-year-old said.

“You get the feeling that if the virus doesn’t get you, the frustration sure as hell will.”–Cyril Walker

“The fact that I have one vaccine in my arm will not change my behaviour one iota. I will behave as if I’m not vaccinated at all, because to my mind, that’s the only reasonable way to proceed.”

For the Walkers, they say they still feel they should stay in, and wait a little longer to visit their children and grandchildren.

“It is frustrating for the older people, I think. I don’t know if everybody feels as tough about it as we do, but we feel that we have no alternative but to sit and wait,” Cyril said.

“You get the feeling that if the virus doesn’t get you, the frustration sure as hell will.”

katie.may@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @thatkatiemay