Getting the Sinovac vaccine in Kuching

About a week ago, I got my first shot of the Sinovac vaccine. This experience was surprisingly painless, both in terms of the process, and the actual needle in the arm part. Whether or not everything was done properly is another matter, but I attended and had a needle that presumably had some vaccine in it come into contact with my arm, so that is good enough. Plus, MySejahtera (Malaysian national Covid app) now indicates that I have had the first dose, which is more than it shows for my dad (and he has actually had two doses of the Pfizer vaccine).

I registered to get vaccinated sometime in early June (can't remember the exact date). I found out about my vaccination appointment date a few days before it in early July. I hadn't checked for a couple of days, so I may have been given about a week's notice. I was surprised that I got a date so soon, as people had been registering since February and this phase of vaccinations only started in July. I was expecting a big backlog and a FIFO approach (but who knows how they organized it). The vaccine rollout is being done at a different rate according to each state, so I guess I was the beneficiary of Sarawak being on their game and getting people vaccinated quickly.

My time slot was at 8 am on a weekday morning, which is an annoying time as I had to leave early to account for any possible morning traffic (also, I had never been to the health clinic before). I took a Grab around 7 am and since traffic was light, I got there pretty early. There was already a decent-sized queue outside, but it seemed like the folks there were normal patients of the clinic. I saw a dude ask the security guard there about vaccinations and he was told that the vaccination site was at a different place, about 500 metres away. So, I walked to there, and it turned out to be at the site of the building where I did taekwondo as a kid. That old building is gone (it was pretty old and in need of refurbishment even back then) and there are a couple of fairly new and swanky looking buildings in its place. I was a little sad, as the old building was for the Orang Ulu (a group of indigenous people of Sarawak). Google tells me that the new buildings are for the Islamic Affairs department, which is cool and all, but I hope there is a new Orang Ulu building somewhere. 

I was greeted at the vaccination location by a fairly substantial queue, which I joined just before 8 am. I estimate that there were about 50-60 people ahead of me (the queue snaked around the building). The mood was pretty chill and it seemed like most people were in good spirits (perhaps happy to be getting vaccinated or just to have a reason to get out of the house). The queue went unexpectedly fast. I wasn't timing or anything, but it probably took about 10-15 minutes to get to the front and into the compound. After scanning in, I got into the first building, where I filled in and signed a paper form. I needed to get help as it was in Malay, but I felt a little less sheepish when I realized I wasn't the only person in that position. After filling in all the paperwork and scanning MySejahtera again, I was given a number and moved on to the second building where the vaccinations were actually taking place. 

I walked into a large conference hall/ballroom that had the vaccination booths at one end. I was directed to one of the booths, where there were three nurses (I presume nurses). Unfortunately, none of them spoke very good English. I wasn't too sure what was going on but I managed to figure out where to sit and I just rolled up my sleeve and presented my arm. Now, I am not actually sure what happened next as I wasn't really looking. I felt a tiny amount of pressure, but no actual pain. I think the needle probably broke the skin, but I am not sure. The nurse actually said "whoops", which concerns me slightly. The whole thing was over in a split second and my arm wasn't sore at all, so it left me wondering if the nurse had actually done things properly. I wouldn't put it past someone who is under pressure to vaccinate a whole bunch of people quickly in a short timeframe to not redo things if they fucked up. So I may or may not have been vaccinated properly. In any case, when receiving the next dose, I will watch carefully. 

After I was "vaccinated", I walked to the observation area (which was basically the rest of the hall) and sat down. There was a lady sitting beside me who seemed to have a fairly sore arm, which got me even more concerned. The lady in front of me decided to take a photo, which reminded me that this is something that I could do as well. So I did.

I waited out my time and then went to a check out table, where I scanned MySejahtera again. The nice young dude there asked if I was experiencing any negative effects (which I wasn't) and informed me of the date for my second dose. After this, I was all done and free to go.

All up, the whole thing took about an hour (including the observation time). I was impressed by the efficiency of the whole operation, as I didn't have to wait very long at any one step. They were clearly getting through a lot of people very quickly, which is great. Hopefully that wasn't at the expense of doing things properly (certainly in my case), but I guess time will tell. For what it's worth, my arm did feel a little weak for a few days after. Presuming that the feeling was real and not just in my head (psychosomatic?), then I probably did get some vaccine in me. As long as I got some exposure to the virus and my immune system has something to work with, it should be fine. 

Rant about comparing countries during pandemic times

The Economist has an index which is designed to measure/estimate the level of "normalcy" that countries are at (compared with pre-Covid times). Now, I actually really dislike these types of aggregated metrics. While not totally useless, it is just one organization's approach to estimating something that is impossible to accurately quantify. There is a degree of subjectivity in determining things like: what to include, what to use to measure it, and which countries to include (not to mention weighting of each indicator etc). This is unavoidable when tackling such a huge subject. While the individual country results for each indicator are interesting, I wouldn't put too much stock into the aggregate figures, and definitely wouldn't use them to compare countries. The reason why lists like these irk me is that they provide a numerical rank which other media outlets can lazily take and use to put out clickbait nothing content. "Country X is ranked in X position according to X organization for X thing!", while disregarding that X position is within a few points of 10 other countries and, with a slightly different methodology, could be significantly higher or lower. Not taking issue with The Economist, because at the end of the day, they made a good faith stab at understanding the situation. They have to produce content to stay in business (that subscription rate is pretty high). I'm just saying that this list (and others of its type) are probably closer to Buzzfeed top-10 list clickbait than readers would care to admit. The Economist normalcy index got my attention, and I only felt slightly less dirty reading it than a list of top ten ways to know if someone is attracted you (not that I have read too many of those *cough* *cough*).

I had originally intended on writing about the difference between New Zealand in 2nd place (Basically 1st as The Economist is being a bit naughty putting the "country" of Hong Kong in the list) and Malaysia in last place (among the 50-ish countries ranked), rather than ranting about edutainment. I am kind of losing steam and a desire to write seriously (let's rant away!). So, of course life in New Zealand is basically normal, the country has almost completely sealed off the borders and also has geographical advantages to keeping those borders sealed. The Sarawak/Kalimantan border can't really be controlled because it is miles and miles of jungle. So it remains a vulnerability and an excuse for Sarawakians to (mostly unfairly and in a somewhat racist manner) blame Indonesians sneaking across the border for problems in the state. "Oh, it is hard to control Covid in Sarawak because people will sneak across the border and bring more of it in." Well, even if that were the case, if there was a proper lockdown/MCO with stricter rules then at least the people who followed the rules would be safe. Also to my knowledge (which isn't great to be fair), the vast majority of people with Covid in Sarawak are Malaysians, not Indonesians. 

So to use an analogy, New Zealand with it's advantages is like a dude with a large penis. Sure it is nice to feel proud and not have to feel ashamed in the changing rooms, but at the end of the day, you personally didn't do anything to get a wang of that size and is it really something to be that proud of? (and you certainly shouldn't be rubbing it in other people's faces) Sarawak is like the dude with the average-sized member who thinks it's small because he sees big dick New Zealand manspreading without a towel on the changing room benches. Sure, you didn't get dealt the best hand, but it could be worse, and you should probably do what you can to compensate in other areas, like self-improvement (buying a big car don't count). How about you walk fearlessly into that communal shower and you wash your sweaty ass clean, because you don't want to get some sort of infection, right?

The analogy might not have been the most appropriate (in whatever sense you wish), but I think the sentiment is close enough. In my opinion, based on having lived there through pandemic times up until 6 weeks ago, there is a sense of complacency and arrogance in the New Zealand population. It's just my opinion, and I don't have the inclination to create a "complacency and arrogance index" to compare and rank different countries based on a number of factors selected by me, which I would then see if any media outlets would want to use to create freebie clickbait content (not that I have the same credibility as The Economist). I guess I'd just like to remind New Zealanders that you are no better or worse than anyone else in the world, you are just lucky enough to live in a country with natural advantages in dealing with a pandemic (isolated geographical location, strong food production, low population density etc) and a relatively less incompetent government (but still somewhat incompetent). You could be living in a country with a porous land border, and a part of the population that thinks attending gatherings during Hari Raya and other holidays are a risk worth taking during a pandemic. You could have a government that didn't have the stones to enforce a stricter lockdown/MCO before it was too late. I would love to insert several jokes about the Malaysian government, but there is a real possibility that I might cross the line.  I am not crazy and am not under the illusion that I have any real anonymity here (other than basically no one reading this blog).

While the mood in Malaysia seems to be pretty pessimistic, it's not like there isn't a reason for it. People here are suffering. Perhaps the government would be in a better spot to provide welfare and support for the people struggling here if it wasn't for tiny little things like corruption. Not going to dwell too much on corruption (I repeat, I am not crazy), but with a lesser amount of it, there would have been more money available to feed the folks who put white flags outside of their dwellings to ask for community support (which is really heart-breaking). Perhaps we could create a metric of super yacht and sports cars to starving people index, and rank countries based on that. I bet Malaysia would be pretty high on the list! Wait, there is a GINI coefficient? I guess that works. If we are going to aggregate data, then why not use GINI, the Economist "normalcy" index, the Corruption Perception Index (which is hilariously subjective, but it is in the name), some Covid infection and death figures, some economic figures and smush them all together to create a super metric to determine how fucked each country is. I think New Zealand will come out looking good! Relatively less fucked!

Life in Malaysia is much further from normal (whatever your definition of normal is) than New Zealand, and you didn't need a well-respected publication like the Economist to cobble together some data to tell you that. You could just take the word of some random, frustrated dude who is in lockdown/MCO in Sarawak, who is living off of instant noodles and peanut butter (not complaining, I am grateful I have food, plus I could put in more effort to eat better), who probably has drastically low melatonin levels from being cooped up inside all day (again I could make more of an effort there) and who is reflecting on the life choices that led him to this situation. I may or may not take this down soon, so I hope the 3 people who read my blog enjoy it while it is up.