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Patricia Plant lives in Hampden with her husband and three daughters.
Advent is the season during which Christians around the world wait and prepare for the celebration of the birth and second coming of Christ. It is a time of hope and anticipation for the arrival of their Savior.
How fitting it is, then, that the first COVID-19 vaccines have been approved for emergency use in the United States during Advent. The world has been waiting for a savior to rescue us from this pandemic. It is something for us to celebrate, even as we must wait for these vaccines and others to become widely available.
While this news may be the best we’ve heard during this long, dark pandemic, any vaccine by itself will not save the world from the grips of this virus. The participation of the public is required. We have to do our part.
During the waiting, we have time to educate ourselves and consider whether we will receive a vaccine when it is our turn. “Knowledge is power” is a phrase I’ve often heard, and it is true in our current times.
I am a lifelong Mainer, and what I love about Mainers is our strength, resilience and independence. We are good people. We think for ourselves. We take care of our neighbors.
My hope for Christmas this year is that we keep an open mind about the vaccines: If we are unsure, that we do our own research using reputable sources of information from medical and public health professionals. Sometimes the loudest voices on the internet are not the most accurate. Instead, we can ask our health care providers, pharmacists and public health professionals what their recommendations are for us and place trust in their education, knowledge and expertise.
It has been quiet at our house for the past nine months. Missed birthday parties, prom, family gatherings, an anniversary party and weddings. All came to pass with less fanfare than we had planned at the beginning of 2020. We still ate lobster in the summer. But it was just the five of us. It felt different. And yet, we are fortunate. COVID has not yet sickened any in our family.
Christmas will be different for us this year, too. It will be the first year that we won’t be in a church on Christmas Eve, but instead watching online. There are grandparents we won’t visit, cousins we won’t see. But still, we are lucky.
It will likely be a while before I can get my COVID-19 vaccine. I’m not in any high-risk group. So I will patiently wait. And wear my mask, wash my hands and stay distanced.
When my turn comes, though, I will gladly roll up my sleeve for the vaccine. I will do this for my older family members who we can no longer safely visit. I will do this for friends with underlying medical conditions. For medical and front-line workers. For nursing home residents and elderly community members. I will get my vaccine so my daughters’ schools can safely reopen five days a week for all students; so I can go to their school concerts and sporting events; so I can meet and hold my infant nephew and hug my sister, his mother. And this summer, I really want to eat lobster the way it was meant to be eaten — with family and friends.
It will take many of us saying “yes” to a COVID vaccine to protect all of us. As in so many things, there is strength in numbers. It is how we will bring safety to a world that is completely changed since last Christmas.