Getting Vaccinated
It took me awhile to get my vaccine. And they’re not done. The vaccines here in China require two shots and I’ve only gotten one. But one is better than none. Vaccinations for foreigners started in April or May I think but I’d heard the efficacy of the Chinese vaccines a lot lower than the western ones (which seems to be in the news again) and I was hoping to get the most effective one I could. But it became apparent that China wasn’t going to be giving out those vaccines, just the local ones (although maybe that will change soon). Plus I started to get worried that domestic travel, the only travel available right now, would get tied to being vaccinated. And I need to get out of Shenzhen this summer. So I started to look into getting the vaccine.
In Shenzhen foreigners make vaccine appointments at designated hospitals via a mini program called 健康深圳 (jkshenzhen) in WeChat. I’m not sure how locals get theirs but they seem to have more options for locations than the foreigners do. The problem I had was that all the hospitals were always full when I tried to make an appointment. I started to get worried. Since I needed two doses I was running out of time before summer. Then I finally got an appointment one Sunday in Longhua I think it was. Not too close but also not terribly far. And it was the weekend. But then Sunday morning I got a call saying that all the appointments at that hospital had been postponed. I’m not entirely sure why but I think there had been a couple of cases in that district so maybe the doctors got moved to something else. I was…less than pleased. All that time trying to get an appointment and poof, gone.
But a couple of days later I managed to get another appointment at a much closer hospital. Good, since it was mid-week. This one didn’t get cancelled so off I went. I went as early as I could just in case there was a lot of waiting. Also in case I got lost. Luckily there were plenty of signs so I didn’t.
The process was pretty painless (pun…maybe intended?). Maybe not as quick as I’ve heard some people say it is in the US but not too bad. I got to the hospital and there were signs in English and Chinese showing where to go, then I waited in line, filled out my paperwork, got my jab, waited my 30 minutes, and I was on my way. There were also some rules I was told as well. No getting the injections site wet for 4 hours and no alcohol, seafood, or vigorous exercise for week.
All in all it wasn’t too bad once I managed to get an appointment, but getting an appointment wasn’t too easy. And now I’ve got to wait 3/4-8 weeks to get my second shot, which hopefully won’t be as hard to schedule.
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