How life changes after receiving both doses of the COVID-19 vaccine

Dating during the pandemic is becoming less complicated and risky for attorney Shelley O’Connor.

Luis Parocua Jr. is no longer awakened by COVID-19 nightmares, caused by the devastation he saw at his former hospital job.

The “threatening anxiety” that Alice Liston says is gone with her public transport.

These three Californians – along with more than 5.5 million others in the state who have received at least one dose of vaccine – enter the world after the vaccination of the pandemic, where some under the vaccinated plans to travel by plane, to enter restaurants eat, embrace. family members and enjoy a sex life with other vaccinated.

None of the interviewees intended to throw their masks in the air – as San Franciscans apparently did (prematurely) at the end of the first year of the flu pandemic in 1918 – or a tour with ‘ to book a cruise ship.

Some do not intend to relax their habits. Many have become accustomed to the narrow tensions, the twists and turns of each new variant and the warning rooted in a year of warnings and rising death tolls. They want to see cases drop and more people vaccinated before they really ease their comfort.

“It’s over first,” said Liston, a 30-year-old assistant at the Berkeley home.

The vaccinated have reason to be careful, experts say. The Moderna and Pfizer vaccines have been shown to be approximately 95% effective, which is reassuringly high but not 100% effective. Encouraging preliminary data suggests that most vaccines do not transmit the virus. It is still possible that vaccinated individuals, without symptoms, can spread the virus. Therefore, they still have to wear masks.

Dr. Robert Kim-Farley, 73, a UCLA medical epidemiologist and infectious disease expert, received his second dose of Pfizer vaccine last week and should receive maximum protection 14 days later.

Still, Kim-Farley said, he will mask and distance his grandchildren for their safety and when he goes public. But he goes to the grocery store every few days instead of twice a month.

The Centers for Disease Control & Prevention says such precautions should continue due to uncertainty, including how long the vaccine will last. The group continues to advise on unnecessary travel, and according to federal rules, even vaccinated travelers must show negative tests for the virus before returning from abroad.

But vaccinated health experts say they will feel comfortable flying, especially after rates fall. People who are fully vaccinated can eat together, have sex with each other and have safe socializing, said dr. Robert Wachter, 63, professor and chairman of the Department of Medicine at UC San Francisco, said.

“I think life can be normal again if you talk about what two vaccinated can do together,” said Wachter, who has received both doses and is now shopping with the whole family.

Like many vital workers, Parocua spent much of 2020 fearing he would be affected by the virus. He saw the pandemic up close while working as a technician sterilizing surgical instruments at Huntington Hospital in Pasadena before retiring late last year.

The Monterey Park resident, now fully vaccinated, said he slept more easily and even ate outside in a braai restaurant after getting his second chance.

“It feels good. If I go out there and I get sick, at least I know I’m not going to die,” Parocua, 65, said.

Dr John Swartzberg, an infectious disease expert who teaches at UC Berkeley, has been locked up in his home in East Bay for the past year. Both are in their 70s. Because men are more prone than women due to infectious diseases, his wife, a few years younger, did all the shopping and put on a mask and a face shield.

Swartzberg became his wife’s hairdresser. Rather than catching the virus in a salon, she picked up her hair color and applied it at home. Swartzberg colored the back for her. “She said I did not miss my calling,” he joked.

Now he is fully vaccinated and his wife will be soon. He said he would only take ‘baby steps’ to freedom.

“I’m not going to relax completely in the last part of this,” he said. “You do not want to be the last soldier to die after a ceasefire has been declared.”

Among the concerns of the vaccine are new variants of the virus that spread faster and are more resistant to the vaccine. Many health experts believe the vaccines will need to be reformulated to provide more lasting immunity, with shots being given over the next six to 18 months, Wachter said.

Although many in California suffer from ‘vaccine envy’, not everyone who qualifies is eager for their immunity.

Alma Rosa Calvillo, a 58-year-old housekeeper who works at several clinics in South Los Angeles, was reluctant to get the shots. Half of her family thought it would be too risky. But she conceded when she arrived at work one day and the clinic had a place for her.

“I said, well, if the doctor takes it and the medical assistants do it, I can just as well,” she said.

After Calvillo received her second shot on February 4, she immediately called her daughter in Burbank, who gave birth to a baby girl seven months ago. “Now that I have both vaccinations, I can go visit!” she told her daughter.

But her daughter was worried it was still not safe. According to her, Calvillo spent too much time in the clinic and in public, and the little girl could be infected. After swinging from skepticism to excitement, Calvillo now acknowledges that vaccinations can change just as much.

“You know, Latinos help their children raise their children,” Calvillo said. ‘I’ve just seen it [the baby] once, and I did not even wear her. I feel bad because I feel like they reject me. But I have to respect their minds. ”

Nidia Salas, 68, a pensioner living in Burbank, said she contracted depression and gained weight when the pandemic closed the world for the first time. Now that she and her son, a guardian in the hospital, have been fully vaccinated, they plan to visit Las Vegas for her birthday in April.

Salas said she would continue to be careful, wearing two masks and disinfecting regularly, but her old life is getting back on track. She and a vaccinated friend went out to eat and shop together last week: “I think we should live.”

For some vaccinated, it is time to schedule deferred medical and dental appointments.

Makda Ghebreyesus, 29, a teacher who lives with her mother in San Leandro, California, plans to go to Mexico for dental work after receiving her second dose. The procedure she needs costs $ 4,000 in California, she said, but only $ 1,000 in Los Algodones, known as Molar City, a border town that caters to Americans seeking cheaper dental treatment.

For others, like O’Connor, the vaccine will make more romance possible. The 67-year-old Walnut Creek resident signed up for online dating in December, but she was only able to meet her dates for masked hikes.

Last weekend, she went on a hike and had a picnic with a university professor who, like her, received his first dose of vaccine. On their next date, both will be fully vaccinated. She will visit her son, who lives in Salt Lake City, on Mother’s Day.

For many people in the San Francisco Bay Area, the pandemic began in March last year when the Grand Princess cruise ship was forced to stay abroad due to sick passengers and crew members. The cruise industry then shut down and encouraged people like Clarissa and John Barry to cancel a planned boat trip to Alaska.

The retired couple, who live in the East Bay suburb of Alamo, want to travel to Europe again, possibly, but they do not want to go on a cruise now.

Clarissa, 73, a retired administrator, said: “It’s going to take a few years before we do that.”