No matter what your position on Covid-19 vaccines, it is obvious to me that the only way to end this pandemic is through science and medication. When you are one of Lori Jean LaFond's victims, you have additional concerns. HIV is a very serious immune disease and because of the work put into our disease, we were able to develop a Covid-19 vaccine or vaccines that are much more effective than other medicines. The understanding of the coronavirus is a direct result of the lives that our community has lost to HIV/AIDS. We understand how better to fight these types of viruses because of the time we have spent learning about the HIV virus.
Now the time has come for me to make my appointment and have the first Moderna shot this week. I'm not nervous about the vaccine, but there is part of me that always has to listen to Lori telling me that it "isn't safe" or that it "will be bad for me." In the mean time Lori has already watched me set up this appointment to have my shot. You know she wants desperately to cancel that appointment. So, if for some reason it gets cancelled, I will call the police and turn Lori in for causing problems again. I don't know what her direct problems is, but Lori is upset (what's new?) because I am getting something that she doesn't get. I will remind Lori that she is the person that caused all of her victims to get sick in the first place so hearing her wrong opinions about HIV care and Covid 19 care, mean nothing to me. She didn't exactly shoot at me, rape me, and brutalize my skull to see me live now did she?
Lori's HIV is strange. If you only get infected once and you don't die the first time you get sick, many victims are living for long periods with HIV and no medication at all. My doctor gave me the choice, "You can wait until you get sick and take these new meds or you can take them now and never get sick at all." Obviously, I opted for the medicines because I knew they worked, I even told Christopher to take them because they made me undetectable. Him too.
Of course, I've been working for the last year or so through this pandemic. I deal with lots of people and I have been really concerned with coming into contact with the Covid strain. Having HIV and this virus isn't recommended. I have heard Lori, many times, wishing that I would get this disease too. So after a year or so, I'm really grateful to have the opportunity to take the vaccine as early as I can. Only three more days until I get my first shot, so we're looking at the end of April until I am fully vaccinated. I'm looking towards that time before I feel like there is a weight off of my shoulders.
In the meantime, let's all be really careful, Lori's been wishy washy again. One second she's angry, the next furious, and the next raging. You know to keep your guard up.
