April 24. Second vaccination dose. Everything just as routine as the first, nothing new to report. Except that I was greeted by a woman whose eyes shone at me above the mask, in a fancy black uniform. They play good music in the shock waiting room. And now I’d like some side effects please, just for one day of course, just to be able to say I was there. So far nothing, not even the pressure pain in my arm from the first time.

I told our doorwoman about the vaccination. She doesn’t want it. She’s scared, she says. They have no idea how what they inject you with works. You have to wait thirty minutes afterwards to make sure you don’t get a shock.

4.22p Maybe a little more tired than usual. But maybe the only reason I wish for the side effects is because it would be a great excuse to do totally nothing at all for a whole day, which for me was at least decades ago.

4.28p Maybe some kind of restrained glow in the body?

7.45p Feeling of pressure at the injection site increases somewhat, slight swelling. That was different the first time, the pressure feeling was there from the beginning. Other than that, I don’t think I’m getting any of those stupid side effects. – When reading studies, it sounds strange when it says people »suffer« from side effects. A feeling of pressure on the arm, for example. These are things that are observed, recorded, but suffering?

Tweet from Nate Silver saying he’s among those who think it’s nonsensical not to get vaccinated, and nonsensical not to return more or less fully to pre-pandemic life after vaccination. And that only about ten percent of the population is likely to fall into that category.

If the pandemic has shown one thing, it is that what we think is absolutely obvious could not be more different between different people. In this respect, a terrific example of the problem that is likely to be the most difficult in the transition to a planetary civilization, and the one we most urgently need to solve.